It's Cold So I'm Thinking About Snow in the Frozen Northlands

I'm cold, and looking at the temperatures expected for the next week, I'm going to be cold much earlier than usual this year. I'm hoping this won't be a forecast for an unusual amount of snow this winter, but the years of 60 degree Halloween nights doesn't seem to be in my future. It's currently below freezing, (28 F) and the days will have highs in the 30's and low 40's for the rest of the month. In fact, we won't be as warm as 45 F degrees until Sunday, November 1st. I was going to wear a long-sleeved t-shirt along with a lighter-weight long-sleeved sweater today, but I switched the t-shirt over to a turtleneck. Time to resign myself to cold once again. 

Everyone who lived through the Great Halloween 
Blizzard of 1991 will never forget it. It was a real 
dump right on the Twin Cities, and we were digging 
out of it for days to come. Because it happened so 
early in the season, people weren't prepared and the 
following spring they found many things they would 
normally have put away for the winter, still in 
the backyards of the houses. 

Of course, I can't enter an early cold snap without thinking about the Great Halloween blizzard of 1991. DH and I had been out at our favorite bar/restaurant that evening and headed back home, usually a quick 10 minute drive, through driving snow with very poor visibility. By the end of the storm, we had received over 8 inches of snow overnight, the most snow in October in Minnesota history. I'm sincerely hoping that even though we'll have colder than usual temperatures, we won't have the accompanying snowfall. 

In 2010, I was in touch with many of my on-line 
friends while we got a 17.1 inch snowfall which 
has been nicknamed "Domebuster" ever since. 
It was the snowstorm that collapsed the Metrodome 
inflated roof. I remember posting the video of the 
dome collapsing under the weight of the snow at 
that time, and it's still remembered here in the Cities. 

I've had memorable snowfalls before, but the Halloween blizzard ended up dumping almost 29 inches of snow on the Twin Cities between October 31st and November 3rd. It's still the top snowfall, in records going back into the 1880's. I've lived here in the Frozen Northlands for 14 of the top 20 snowfalls we've had here, so there's a lot of snow that I remember - not all of it fondly. The one I really hated the most is actually counted as two separate blizzards, although it was all within five days. On January 20 & 21, 1982, we got 17.2 inches, then on January 22 & 23 we got an additional 20 inches. We were still in the old house at that time, and were completely blocked in - no way to exit our garage. So, after we got the steps and walkways shoveled out (numerous times), we invited a nearby friend over for a blizzard party and had a lovely few days before returning to the daily grind. It would be harder now, with having to pull snow off the roof, but at least we have a good snowblower for the driveway. 

Last year, April 13-16, we had an unusual "Thunder 
Blizzard", a rainstorm that turned to snow and pelted 
the Cities for several days, leaving almost 16 inches 
of snow in its wake. I drove through that storm to 
get home from work and I could barely see a block 
ahead of me. My normal 10-minute drive turned into 
a 30-minute white knuckle drive. I was petrified because 
visibility was so poor, but I couldn't stop, because I 
would have been hit by another car, or a snow plow. 

So I'm hoping for a November heat wave. I doubt I'll be that lucky, but a girl can dream. Instead, I suspect I'll have an unusually high heating bill from our utility company for the next few months. Maybe the cold will kill the virus? Nah - I doubt we could be that lucky or that it could be that easy. So ... have a lovely Monday, enjoy your day wherever you live, and please, be safe, stay well and wear your mask. I'll be back tomorrow, still cold but so far without snow.