HEY, ALL YOU MINNESOTA SNOWBIRDS wintering away in Texas, Arizona and Florida. How’s the weather at your winter retreat? As warm as back home?
If you’re detecting a hint of smugness in my inquiry, you are correct.
The temperature reading at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, January 5, is 28.4 degrees in my backyard. Note that the time is incorrect , so just ignore it.
Let’s step into my backyard and review yesterday’s weather via a series of photos. First, imagine me dressed in a comfy red and black buffalo plaid flannel shirt and blue jeans minus a winter coat. It’s 8:30 a.m.and I’m clipping freshly-laundered flannel sheets onto the clothesline. At 28.4 degrees the cold air nips at my fingers, but I work at a rapid pace.
Notice all of the snow on the ground at 8:30 a.m. when I hang sheets on the clothesline.
Four hours later I step outside to read the temperature; it’s already climbed to 46 degrees.
I scrape the last remnants of snow and ice from the concrete driveway. The snow that had clung to the lawn on the north side of the backyard fence is disappearing in the warmth heat of the day.
By 3:30 p.m., when I visit the backyard again, I read 52.7 degrees on the weather recording station.
My temperature recording device reads a balmy 52.7 degrees @ 3:30 p.m. Again, note that the time is incorrect so you'll just have to trust me on this time and temp.
An hour later I pull the mostly-dry sheets from the line in a backyard nearly free of snow.
How’s that for January 5 in southern Minnesota?
This is my backyard @ 3:30 p.m. See how the snow has all but vanished in the balmy temps.
NOTE: These temperature readings from my Faribault backyard are unofficial.
But officially, Minnesota broke some record temps on Thursday. According to the National Weather Service, temperatures soared into the 60s in southwestern Minnesota.
Reports the NWS: “There has never been a 60 degree temperature recorded in Minnesota during the first week of January…in the modern day record. Click here to read the full NWS summary on Thursday’s record temps.
And for me, personally, this may mark the earliest date I’ve hung laundry on the clothesline in a new year.
© Copyright 2012 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
I am researching the history of two properties in Hammond and wondered if you might help! You did a great job of documenting the flood. Thanks.
Thank you, Daniel. I’ll contact you via e-mail shortly re. your Hammond research.
I just knew you would hang clothes on the line yesterday! I did, too. 4 loads of laundry and they were all dry by 3 pm. My outdoor thermometer read 58 degrees at 2:30 pm. What a wonderful day!
What a sisterhood we have, Katie, in our shared love of hanging out the laundry. I thought my flannel sheets and hand-woven rugs would all dry in the warmth of the day. But lack of bright sunshine and no wind meant I still had to toss them in the dryer at the end of the day.
It is crazy, isn’t it? There were some days while we were in WA that the temps were WARMER back at home in MN than they were in WA! It rained almost every day there, though…which SW MN is BADLY lacking.
Yes, I know I should be hoping for snow to replenish the moisture, which is badly needed. But it’s just so darned nice without snow. Plus I realize those that rely on cold, snowy weather are also being economically impacted.
Yes, I’ve been thinking about about those people lately too – plus, the disappointented ice fishermen! I was planning on blogging about ice fishing…but I guess it will have to wait until next year! Though, of course, there is still February to come!!!
Snow on its way tomorrow, Gretchen. I keep reminding myself that this is Minnesota and we still have a good three months or more of winter to go. Conditions can change just like that.