Minnesota isn't a Cool State: It's Downright Cold

"No respite as wintry storms spread over nation"
Associated Press (December 16, 2008)

"Freezing air blanketed much of the nation Tuesday, making roads hazardous in Texas and slowing recovery from ice storm blackouts in New England, in the second day of a bitter cold wave.

Temperatures were 20 below zero and lower across the northern Plains, and a band of snow, freezing rain and sleet stretched from Kansas along the Ohio Valley to Maine...."

"...Some of the sharpest cold Tuesday was in northern Minnesota, where Hibbing bottomed out at 32 below zero and International Falls dropped to 28 below. In the middle of the state, St. Cloud fell to 24 below, breaking its old record of 21 below set in 1963...."

Those temperatures are all Fahrenheit.

There's more to the story:

"Weather: St. Cloud State University - Local Forecast"
St. Cloud State University (December 17, 2008)

"...Even though temperatures began rising about this time yesterday and have continued to increase all day and all night, St. Cloud managed to tie yet one more cold weather record. After our record low of -24°F early yesterday, temperatures did rise above zero by last evening. However, the average temperature for the day was still only -10°F, tying the record coldest average for December 16, set in 1897. That makes 4 record low temperatures broken or tied during the past two days. Still, days like the last two days happen during a normal winter. St. Cloud averages 5 or 6 days with a low of at least -20°F and 4 days with a high of zero or colder...." [emphasis mine]

This reminds me of a newspaper headline my father told me about. He'd recently moved to Minnesota, when he read: 'Cold Wave Broken! Mercury Rises to Four Below.'

There's something between a joke and a saying that goes, "Minnesota doesn't have a climate: it has weather." And, of course, "if you don't like the weather, stick around: it'll change."

Just the same, as the St. Cloud University post said, we've been having some record low temperatures lately.

Related post:

• "Death Map: If the Cold Doesn't Get You, the Heat Will"
  (December 17, 2008)