reader2580
Well-known member
Our winters here in Minneapolis seem to be shorter and shorter. We still get cold in January and the first part of February, but not so much in December. It is currently -9F which is pretty cold. We didn't get any real snow until about three weeks ago. I got 4", but 30 miles south they got 20". The crazy thing is we got a string of above freezing days including a 50 degree day and 90% of the snow melted. Last year we got early snow and cold at the end of October, but then unusual warmth and no snow until Dec 23rd. I managed to completely move and reinstall my solar system between late October and Christmas. No way I could have done that in a normal winter.No don't think anyone has a "normal" winter any more. We used to start getting cold temps in late November, snow in early December, and that's the way it would stay until early March. Now we get wild temp swings all winter long. 2*F one day, 4 days later, 40*F. It actually makes it harder because you can never adjust.
When I was growing up in the 1980s winter seemed to start a lot earlier. I sold Christmas wreaths outside the church doors the weekend after Thanksgiving for a number of years. There would already be huge snow banks along the sidewalks. It was not unusual to get snow while selling so we would shovel the sidewalks between masses. One winter they got so much snow in southern MN where my grandparents lived they had to bring in huge snow blowers to clear the streets. We went to visit my grandparents after that snow storm and the streets were like tunnels. You could not see anything out the car windows except a wall of snow.














