Photo by Deb Gau The sun shone through a row of trees at the edge of a field west of Marshall on Thursday afternoon. The Marshall area started out 2022 with sub-zero cold, but average temperatures over the past year were warmer than normal, according to National Weather Service data.

MARSHALL — The weather in southwest Minnesota might be bitterly cold now, but average temperatures in Marshall were higher than normal in 2021.

According to data from the National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls, last year was the sixth warmest on record for Marshall. The average temperature in 2021 was 48 degrees, said Andrew Kalin of the NWS. Marshall’s all-time highest average yearly temperature was recorded in 2012.

“The average that time was 49.6 degrees,” he said.

While 2021 was warmer and possibly drier than normal for Marshall, Kalin said the weather over the past year didn’t break any records for precipitation or daily temperatures. He compared NWS data from 2021 with records going back to 1936.

In terms of precipitation, 2021 “was definitely on the drier half, but not in the top 10 driest (years),” he said.

Marshall’s average yearly precipitation is 25.9 inches, Kalin said. According to data from volunteer observers, Marshall received a total of 22.28 inches of precipitation in 2021. However, Kalin said that total could be incomplete because observers did not report data in part of December.

The Independent’s tally of precipitation in Marshall, based on a combination of reported rainfall data and locally measured snowfall, totaled 27.26 inches for 2021.

The driest full year on record for Marshall was 1980, when only 13.1 inches of precipitation fell, Kalin said. Just 10.31 inches of precipitation was recorded in 1976, but in that year there was also no observer data from July through November.

Southwest Minnesota started 2021 in dry conditions, which worsened into drought over the summer, according to data form the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, by the end of October, drought conditions in the region were lifting.

For Marshall, the hottest day of 2021 was June 6, when temperatures reached 102 degrees. That was several degrees short of the city’s all-time high of 109, which was recorded in July 1988, Kalin said.

The coldest temperature of 2021 was -23 degrees, reported on Feb. 14 and 15.

It’s still a little hard to say what weather conditions might be in store for southwest Minnesota at the start of 2022, according to outlooks from NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. The seasonal temperature outlook for January through March leans toward below-normal temperatures in the northwestern U.S. and above-normal temperatures over much of the eastern and southern U.S. However, Minnesota and the Dakotas have equal chances of above-normal, below-normal or normal temperatures over the next three months.

Minnesota and the Dakotas also have an equal chance of getting more, less or normal amounts of precipitation over the next three months, Climate Prediction Center outlooks said. Meanwhile, parts of Iowa and Wisconsin lean toward above-average precipitation in the outlook.

Climate Prediction Center drought outlooks said dry conditions in northern Minnesota are likely to improve over the next three months. But drought conditions in the western Dakotas will likely persist, the outlook said.