By Jonathan Cohen 

Last week was on the cool side throughout as temperatures were more than 3 Jonathan
Cohendegrees below average. The only measurable precipitation was the soaking rain on Saturday into Sunday morning, which made it the sixth consecutive weekend with measurable precipitation.

However, the rainfall was below average as the average weekly rainfall has now risen to over three quarters of an inch.

Up north, many parts of the state had snow for the fishing opener with up to 4 inches of accumulation and North Dakota saw up to 6 inches of snow. The big storm the previous weekend, mentioned in last week’s column, was even heavier than I thought as Lead, S.D. saw an astounding total of 54½ inches of snow on May 1 and 2. This was, as expected, a record May snowfall for South Dakota, but only the third heaviest snowfall ever for that state.

The outlook here, finally, is for a dry weekend, and temperatures should rebound to about or a bit above average for the next week, which would mean highs near or into the 70s. There is a slight chance of a shower late in the weekend, but it should generally be dry at least into early next week, when there is an increasing chance of showers and even a thundershower. 

Jonathan Cohen is the Prior Lake observer for the Scott County Soil and Water Conservation District.