Good Question: What's Our Wettest Month?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- "April showers bring May flowers" dates back to an English poem from hundreds of years ago. UMN horticulturalist Julie Weisenhorn says the saying is technically true.
"The warm rain softens up and melts the soil and then rehydrates the roots," she says. "That allows the plants to take up nutrients and sugars."
But, just because many people associate April with rain doesn't mean it's Minnesota's wettest month. That honor goes to June, followed very closely by August.
"April and June, it rains the same amount of days on average, but we have more moisture in the air with the summer months than we do in April," says WCCO meteorologist Kylie Bearse.
In the summer, the jetstream is pushed further to the north and allows the warm, moist air to travel north to Minnesota. It's the opposite in the winter, where the colder, drier air comes south. Warm air holds more moisture than cold air.
According to data compiled by WCCO, the precipitation averages for Minnesota by month are as follows.
Minnesota precipitation (inches)
Jan. -- 0.9
Feb. -- 0.8
March -- 1.9
April -- 2.7
May -- 3.4
June -- 4.3
July -- 4.0
Aug. -- 4.3
Sept. -- 3.1
Oct. -- 2.4
Nov. -- 1.8
Dec. -- 1.2