Although I grew up in Missouri, I spent many summer and winter vacations in northern Wisconsin, either at the family homestead or at relative’s cabins on the Eau Claire lakes. When it was time to pick a college, I announced to my parents that I would only apply to schools in Wisconsin or Minnesota. When I had been in Northfield for two months, I took my first trip to the Twin Cities. All it took was that weekend – I knew this was where I wanted to be. After wasband finished graduate school in Milwaukee, we hightailed it here. After 40+ years, I’d like to consider myself a Minnesotan rather than a Missourian.
It is partly the weather that drew me here so I’ve been surprised by what seems to be a trend the last several years of many Minnesotans over-reacting to the weather before the weather even gets here. So many times there is an alarming forecast and people almost burrow in, stocking up and preparing not to leave their homes. Then, of course, 8 out of 10 times, the dreaded weather never arrives.
This has happened to me once already, when snow was forecast for the week before Christmas. On that Tuesday, my book club baled on our rare in person meeting which was scheduled for Thursday. There was snow on Thursday but not nearly what was threatened. Main road and highways were fine.
Now I’ve gotten an email from a friend with whom I have concert plans in March, asking if I’d rather get online viewing tickets instead of driving downtown to see the show in person. Because it’s March, when we often have snowstorms.
This is a trend that mystifies me. Does this make me a tough Minnesotan?
How do you handle weather where you are?
Trail Baboon 
I’m actually in St Louis this week. Yesterday it snowed and spit (what St Louisans call sleet/ice)… about 4-5 inches. There is no other news this morning. If anything else is happening, it’s been pushed aside for traffic and weather. I just heard the current 19 degrees as “dangerously cold”. Funny what you get used to!
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Part of the problem with threatening weather, for us at least, is that unlike 30 or 40 years ago we are now part of a cohort of seniors for whom unpredictable weather is just one more reason to exercise caution.
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19 is dangerously cold!? Wusses! Some oil drillers up here won’t send out their crews if the windchill is colder than -20. Too much frostbite. Our dog had been frustrated because it has been too cold to walk him, with highs in the single digits for the past week. I wore my winter coat for the first time on Saturday. Usually I just wear a lined jacket. I rarely wear mittens or gloves, and just put up my hood in lieu of a hat.
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LOL. Is this weather judgement? Wusses? Once you head for the tropical climes of Luverne, MN will you be a weather wuss?
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I admit I am looking forward to retirement when I can choose to stay home when the weather is bad. I am most concerned how Husband is going to tolerate heat and humidity in Luverne. It helps the corn grow, but Husband wilts.
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We have the luxury of not having day jobs, so on bad weather days, we hunker down and stay home. I do think people have become softer regarding weather. Could be due to better forecasting and more of it being overhyped as a way of getting eyeballs, clicks, views, whatever you call it. If it bleeds it leads could become if it snows it grows(?)
My philosophy for a long time has been the weather is going to do what it’s going to do, so adapt to it. Don’t be foolish and try to beat Mother Nature.
And with climate change hitting home hard the past two winters, I’m resigning myself to the fact that we may not experience a good old fashioned Minnesota “brutal winter” for the rest of my life. *sigh* No snow to play in two years in a row? Unthinkable even ten years ago. I might be able to skate a few times on the river/pond if it stays below freezing another several days. Fingers crossed.
Chris in Owatonna (wish I could call it “Snowatonna.”)
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I have coats, hats, mittens and boots for really cold weather that I haven’t needed in years. I question whether there’s any point in keeping them “just in case”.
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I am keeping mine. I feel it is unwise to assume that there will never be really cold spells again–it might just get to -20° instead of -40°. And that it still very cold and dangerous.
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And anything below -20F, well, it doesn’t really matter anymore.
February 1996, I know it got to -42 at our house I think we were lucky to still have an actual analog thermometer with the red liquid in it, because digital thermometers only go to -40. How would I have known it was 2° colder?
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When I lived waaay up Nort in the late 70’s I learned that LPGAS liquifies at about -40. The tank had to be wrapped in electrical heat wire to ensure household heat. It was shocking in that cold.
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It’s eerily quiet here this morning. My mom lives in a large complex of condo units and the condo association has not been out to do anything about the sidewalks yet. And because it’s condos, nobody here has snowblowers or shovels or anything else which is so different from my experience in Minneapolis where the first morning after a snow everybody’s out with their snowblowers and shovels up and down the street .
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OT: Good grief, there were 81 comments on the Trail yesterday – guess everyone’s back from Christmas. Don’t miss the late-night discussion bidets about halfway down…
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I remember a time in Winnipeg when the temperature didn’t get above 0°F for a month. I used to take the bus a lot. It was really cold waiting at the bus stops.
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Rise and Shine, Baboons,
I am with Chris regarding the attitudes about weather, as well as the motivation of “clickbait” to get eyeballs by exaggerating danger by websites and weather forecasters. On the other hand I have experienced a lot of bad weather in my life. With my deepening old age I feel far more cautious. The weather this winter seems a bit more “normal” than last winter, and we did have 6″ of snow here that I enjoyed, although it is gone now. That warm spell which melted the snow was unsettling to me. I hope we get more snow this winter. While this cold snap is not like that of the “old days” at least I do recognize this Minnesota experience.
I like to sleep with cool air temperatures in my house. However, the night before last I let it get too cool here and it took 4 hours to warm the house yesterday
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I agree with Chris that the forecast is often hyped. I like to check the NOAA website, put in the city/state info in the search bar and you get just plain, science-based forecasts for the coming week. No hype. I’m a habitual tv news watcher, but I don’t like it. It just seems like the thing to do at supper time. I’m working on breaking the habit. News isn’t really news anymore. It’s entertainment. A storm in the forecast is huge.
I knew it would be colder here, but it hasn’t been as bad as I thought. I brought my snow bibs, heaviest parka, multiple hats and neck cowls, my Steger mukluks, my heavy hiking boots with ice cleats, and four pairs of mittens. There is no snow here in Two Harbors. I think there might be some farther north, but it’s ice and old snow now. It’s 15 degrees with a north wind by the lake right now.
I’m watching a red squirrel, a brilliant white snowshoe hare (brilliant because it’s snow white and there is no snow), and several chickadees enjoying the corn and sunflower seeds and peanuts I threw out there. Today I’m going to drive north to look for boreal owls and snowy owls. I’ve seen great gray owls twice in my life. Once years ago in northern Michigan with Morgan, and once on Saturday, right on Hwy 61, near Split Rock. I brought my binocs and spotting scope. I don’t care about photos. I just want to see these rare creatures while they’re here. I’m considering a drive to Sax-Zim Bog. I’ll need the snow bibs and parka there, and the ice cleats. I’ll just park in the parking lot and walk the roads and see what I see.
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I am now Ohio Wimpy.
It’s not the snow, it’s the ice and the drivers. Tailgating is “required” here no matter what the conditions. I avoid driving.
And then there is me. At 72, I am aware of the threat of falling. I am aware. Slippery walkways are to be avoided. My ice skating days are over.
And then Wimpy. Fat boy, am I?
Wimpy burger.
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We lived in Southern Indiana for a year, and everything came to a standstill with the slightest amount of snow.
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Mostly I just stay indoors!
Like others, I haven’t got out my warmest coat yet, although if it gets down to the single digits again I will. Winona really is a few degrees warmer than the Twin Cities. And of course our Visit Winona people have dubbed it the Miami of Minnesota…
My biggest issue is the shoveling, which there has blessedly little of so far this year. We don’t have a snowblower, though neighbors sometimes pitch in… The biggest storms have been missing us so far – may it continue, though I would like a little snow on the ground.
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The weather just is what it is. You gotta sort of keep an eye on it so you know if you should or shouldn’t take that two day trip out of town in the winter. Or if you gotta make hay today because it’s gonna rain tomorrow. I can’t stand all the hype about it either. I believe it’s a “CYA” move. Everybody’s trying to cover their own ass, just in case.
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What is it about being Minnesotan that causes people to take pride in being able to tolerate extreme temperatures? Personally I tolerate cold temperatures a lot better than extreme heat and humidity, but I’ll readily admit, I don’t care for extreme temperatures at either end of the spectrum. I’ll do whatever I can to stay within a temperature range that feels comfortable to me.
My days of taking polar plunges into icy water, going cross country skiing in -30º F, and winter camping in January are over. So are my days of playing tennis on a hot and humid 90º F summer day. Truth be told, simply playing tennis, no matter the temp, is in my past. My body is simply too vulnerable to subject it to the challenges I routinely tackled when I was younger.
I’m not sure whether to consider it a defeat or a small victory that my body simply refuses to attempt activities that my brain has long considered questionable.
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I don’t like heat and humidity. I wilt like Renee’s husband, and I whine about it too. The cold hurts everyone but if you dress right, it’s manageable. I usually feel too warm.
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Yep, I think a lot of us are at the stage where we need to listen to our bodies.
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I think how you handle weather has a lot to do with your age. My (almost) 4-year-old grandson doesn’t flinch at the cold and prefers bare feet all year (at least indoors).
I’m long past the days when I’d go ice skating in sub-zero weather. I just don’t enjoy it anymore. And I hate driving– all those aggressive drivers in their Intimidas. They drive like they’re in one of those SUV commercials where the vehicle ends up at the top of a mountain. Instead, they end up in the ditch.
I’ve been wearing my heaviest coat, which isn’t very heavy; Husband thinks I need a new one. It has a hood, which I rarely use. I have a lightweight pair of gloves. I have hiking boots but don’t need them very often here in the metro area.
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Julie – your reference to Intimidas makes me realize that you were around for the Morning Show with Dale and Jim Ed! I hadn’t picked that up before… Glad.
I got to drive an Indimida last month when they gave us a loaner while the Prius was in the shop. It really did feel like driving A Mountain on Wheels.
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Well, I hiked on a very icy trail into a dark, quiet pine forest today. I didn’t hike long. I was warm enough and the sun was shining, but I saw some of the biggest canine paw prints I’ve ever seen in my life, going in the same direction I was going. They could have been from a very large dog, but apparently I’m getting older and wiser too because I decided not to find out.
I did see several grouse, probably ruffed grouse, and another great gray owl. They’re really everywhere this year.
There is snow north and west of here but it’s frozen solid from the rain. The paw prints I saw were in a fresh dusting of snow on top of the solid ice.
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