Minneapolis Snowfall Update: Second Snowiest Winter (December-February) on Record

Image (click to enlarge): Top 5 cumulative seasonal snowfalls to date vs. 2010-11 at Minneapolis, from National Weather Service

March 22, 11 PM CDT Update: The total storm snowfall of 4" to 7" expected through Wednesday would bring the season's total to 84"-87". This could raise the current season to as high as 4th snowiest in Minneapolis history. A minimum of 1.2" would be necessary to reach 6th place, 4.0" to reach 5th place, and 4.8" to reach 4th place. (The current total to date is 80.2".)

March 9 Update: An additional 0.8" through this morning brings the seasonal total to 79.5", putting it in 7th place, behind the 1961-1962 amount of 81.3".

March 7, Noon CST Update: The storm total of 2.1" through this morning puts the seasonal total in sole possession of 8th place with 78.7".

March 6, Midnight CST Update: The 1.7" of snow on Sunday brings the seasonal total to 78.3", still 0.1" below 8th place 1966-67.
The top 10 seasons are:

1983-1984   98.6                                         
1981-1982   95.0                                         
1950-1951   88.9                                         
1916-1917   84.9                                         
1991-1992   84.1                                         
1961-1962   81.3                                         
1951-1952   79.0                                         
1966-1967   78.4                                         
2010-2011   78.3                       
2000-2001   75.8  

March 6 Update: The overall snow season at Minneapolis extends beyond the meteorological winter months of December-February. For the entire season, the 76.6" to date is in 9th place. The record amount was 98.6" in 1983-84, so it would require nearly 2 feet more in the remainder of March and April in order to break the seasonal record.

Original post:
The National Weather Service reports that the 66.7" of snow for the 2010-11 meteorological winter (December-February) was the second largest amount on record at Minneapolis. The record snowiest winter was in 1966-67, when 71.7" fell. It was also the 4th wettest winter on record. The 4.91" of precipitation was 173% of normal.

The average winter temperature at Minneapolis was 1.6° below normal. As the 58th coldest winter, it was near the middle of the range for the 140-year climate history of Minneapolis. The average daily high temperature was 3.0° below normal (36th coldest), but the average low was only 0.1° below normal.

St. Cloud had its 4th snowiest winter on record with 47.5" of snow, and the 4.35" of precipitation was also the 4th wettest on record.

Here are the Minneapolis extreme warmest, coldest, wettest, and snowiest winters, from the National Weather Service (HDD denotes heating degree days):

                            EXTREME      YEAR     DEPART            RANK
DEC-JAN-FEB       MAX          36.3      1878      11.1   WARMEST     1  WARM
DEC-JAN-FEB       MAX          13.3      1875     -11.9   COLDEST     1  COLD
DEC-JAN-FEB       MIN          21.6      1878      12.6   WARMEST     1  WARM
DEC-JAN-FEB       MIN          -5.8      1875     -14.8   COLDEST     1  COLD
DEC-JAN-FEB       MEAN         29.0      1878      11.7   WARMEST     1  WARM
DEC-JAN-FEB       MEAN         3.8       1875     -13.5   COLDEST     1  COLD
DEC-JAN-FEB       HDD          3240      1878     -1077   WARMEST     1  WARM
DEC-JAN-FEB       HDD          5471      1875      1154   COLDEST     1  COLD
DEC-JAN-FEB       PRECIP       9.58      1881      6.75   SNOWIEST    1  WET
DEC-JAN-FEB       PRECIP       0.69      1958     -2.14   DRIEST      1  DRY
DEC-JAN-FEB       SNOW         71.7      1967      40.0   WETTER      1  WET
DEC-JAN-FEB       SNOW         5.2       1944     -26.5   DRIER       1  DRY