June 19-25, 2002: More Rain in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

During the week of June 19-25, the stationary front plaguing the Midwest this month moved back to the north. Along the boundary, upper air disturbances triggered substantial rain events about every two days. The total rainfall for the week exceeded 5 inches in northern Minnesota, and surpassed 6 inches in the southeastern quadrant of Minnesota, hitting Minneapolis hard at times (Figure 22). Meanwhile, south of northern Iowa, northern Illinois, and southern Michigan, rain was quite sparse, amounting to less than 0.5 inches over most of the area. Much of the Corn Belt received less than 25% of normal precipitation, while amounts exceeded 200% over most of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota (Figure 23). Temperatures also reached seasonable to above normal temperatures in most of the Midwest, with the largest anomalies, +5-8°F in the northeastern Midwest (Figure 24). The combination of normal to above normal temperatures and a lack of precipitation caused considerable drying in the Corn Belt, and allowed abnormally dry conditions to return to southwestern Iowa and northeastern Missouri (Figure 25, NDMC).

Precipitation hit Minnesota in several areas. The storms from the evening of the 18th through 20th brought huge 4-6 inch rains to northeastern Minnesota, causing lots of local flooding and infrastructure damage (Figure 26, NWS). These storms, occurring as an upper level low whipped a cold front through, were also quite violent, with 2 weak tornadoes reported. As the boundary sagged south, another 3-7 inches of rain fell on central and southeastern Minnesota on the 20th and 21st (Figure 27, NWS). Finally, more substantial rain fell in the area west of Duluth and in parts of Wisconsin (Figure 28, NWS), bring more flooding and widespread reports of hail and severe wind on the 25th especially (Figure 29, Storm Prediction Center - SPC). Over the course of 8 days, from June 18 to 26, the Duluth NWS radar detected 5-6 inches of rain over very wide areas of Minnesota and Wisconsin, and 10-12 inches in some locations east of St. Cloud, MN (Figure 30, NWS).