I always consider it the mark of a Proper Minnesota Winter when we have a day with either (1) a high below 0°F/-18°C or (2) a low below -20°F/-29°C.
Last winter in MSP, we had neither. Instead of winter, we mostly just got March for 4 months straight.
Today, we’re heading for a high of -7°F and a forecast low around -19°F. We’re getting (1), and coming close to (2). The climate crisis continues, but today in Minnesota, it is truly winter. Here’s to that!
Just in case anyone is reading the above and freaking out about how cold that sounds:
The thing about MN is that everything is built for that kind of cold. The buildings are insulated. The heating is beefy. People have good clothes, good routines, strategies and support networks. We’re used to it. Wild plants and animals •expect• it. It’s really not so bad.
I’d much rather be in MN at -20°F than, say, San Diego at 40°F.
Now being •unhoused• in MN at these temperatures…well, our local support groups do their damnedest, but…that’s a whole different story.
It just boggles my mind that the megaschmuck mayor of Minneapolis keeps destroying encampments when there’s no other housing for the people in them.
…and Minneapolis Public Schools are closed tomorrow. Not a snow day! A cold day.
ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED
@inthehands My pixel art avatar salutes MSP's rugged hardiness!
https://pixiereport.com/pixie?location=KMSP
alt text = "a cloudy day scene, with light snow, showing a standing figure dressed for cold in a blue coat with a Cascadia douglas fir flag, yellow mittens, black pants, yellow boots, a yellow knit hat, a long black-and-white scarf wrapped around mouth and nose, and a clear visor over a pale face."
(maybe too busy a day for media uploads)
@jmeowmeow
This is delightful
@inthehands I have been so pleased that my revival of Tamsin's Weatherpixie project has now been online for months and months, rock steady except for a whoopsie when the National Weather Service switched to a new GoDaddy endorsed cert not in my original cert bag and suddenly all the reports were TV static.
@inthehands Now if we could just get some SNOW…
(I grew up in the UP. A normal Mpls amount of snow always feels light to me, but this year it’s ridiculous)
@Unlikelylass
I firmly believe that we shouldn’t see the ground in MN between the day after Thanksgiving and the Ides of March.
@inthehands Mark Twain agrees. His famous line, "I've never been so cold as in San Francisco in summer." (He said it better.)
@inthehands
I have to say, I'm glad I live in southern Finland, where it really never gets better -20C and generally not below -12 for more than a week a year if that.
@inthehands That shocks me about last year! My last winter in Minneapolis was 2013-2014, which had long stretches without positive temps.
@inthehands this is the mark of a proper Tennessee winter. These pics were taken at 10:30am and noon on the same day.
@JoshDavisNC Warms my heart. I grew up in Colorado, where we can experience snow in the morning and 70 by afternoon!
@inthehands They did that in the '90s, too...
@jima
Yes! Weirdly, it used to be •less• common decades ago…then they realized that forcing students to come on ultra-cold days was inequitable, not taking into account the hardships of students without cars, newcomers to the area without proper gear, etc etc, and it became •more• common…and then the heating climate made it •less• common again.
Or at least that's my impression.
@inthehands That may be! I just very vividly remember one incident in particular.
@jima
Link doesn't wfm in Mona, only preview, but…was that 1995?
@inthehands Ugh, authorized fetch bites again.
It might have been 1995 — based on context clues, I think it was winter of 1995/1996 or 1996/1997.
@inthehands @jima I seem to remember a multi-day cold snap in the mid 90s where the governor called off school for the entire state. Am I imagining this?
@iamdoon @inthehands If not, that may well be the one I remember.
@iamdoon @inthehands @jima There was one, yes. The place I was going to decided to ignore it, and had to be talked into not having students walk across the windy plains in sub -40 windchills.