No big decisions

Posted at 7:02 AM on January 14, 2008 by Paul Huttner (3 Comments)

Dave Moore, legendary WCCO anchor, used to say, "Make no big life decisions in Minnesota in March."

His wisdom is evident, and could also be applied to the last two weeks of January.

Welcome to the coldest week of the year on average in Minnesota. In the metro, our average high this week is 21 and our average low 3. The good news is our averages start creeping up next week. The bad news, those numbers will look pretty good for most of the next two weeks.

After a brief moderation Tuesday, another arctic front sails through late Wednesday. Temperatures in central Canada have been near -30, and that air is headed our way. I expect northern Minnesota to see lows from -20 to -35, with some spots like Embarrass and Tower touching -40 over the next two weeks.

It will be interesting to see if Lake Superior freezes over in the next two to three weeks. It is completely ice covered once every 20 years or so. The last big freeze was March 6, 2003 when the lake was 90 percent frozen over. In 1996 it was 96 percent, and in 1994, it was 95 percent frozen.

The last time Superior was 100 percent frozen over was 1979.

This will probably be the coldest stretch of the winter. The good news is it may be over in about two weeks, and spring begins in just over two months. Hang in there!

PH

---

Comments (3)

I'll betcha it'll get below -20F in Lakeville sometime this weekend. If you've been following temperature readings from that site, they're usually the coldest of the Twin Cities readings by 5 to 10 degrees.

Posted by Chris B. Critter | January 14, 2008 10:33 AM

---

Thanks for thinking about the ice on Lake Superior. I live right on the shore of the lake, here in Duluth. I love it when it freezes over, or even when it's frozen as far as you can see.

However, if the lake does freeze over, it's not in January. The lake is a big thermal flywheel and it gets colder (to stay with the flywheel metaphor, it gets slower) as long as the average air temperature is below the water temperature. As a result, the lake water is at its coldest in March. Late February and early March is freeze-over time, not January. Cold weather this month helps set the stage (helps lower the temp) for a possible big freeze later in the winter.

The big snow on the North Shore was part of that cooling process, as cold air sucked the moisture (and latent heat) out of the lake and returned it as snow.

Posted by Andrew Slade | January 14, 2008 5:04 PM

---

i really don't like it here. it's too cold and icky. my furnace is about to run out and because the jobs pay like crap i have no money to fill it.

the upper midwest stinks.

Posted by i hate wisconsin | January 20, 2008 10:44 PM

---

Post a comment

The following HTML tags are allowed in your comments:
+ Bold: <b>Text</b>
+ Italic: <i>Text</i>
+ Link: <a href="http://url" target="_blank">Link</a>
Fields marked with * are required.

Name*:

Email Address*:

URL:

Remember personal info?

Comments*:

Comment Preview appears above this form upon pressing the "preview" button. Edit your comment and press "preview" again, until you are satisfied with your comment.

Your comment may not appear on the blog until several minutes after it was submitted.

• E-mail this page
• Print this page
• Save to Delicious
• Submit to Digg
• Share this

Services

• Hourly Newscast
• HD Radio
• iPhone App / Mobile
• E-mail newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts
• Submit your photos
• Videos
• Weather
• Most e-mailed stories

Become a Sponsor