WHAT A DIFFERENCE a week makes.
Last Saturday, temps reached nearly 60 degrees here in southern Minnesota in a landscape bare of snow. Today, as I glance out my office window, snow covers the ground and the temp hovers around 30 degrees.
My neighborhood on Friday morning. With schools and some businesses closed due to the winter storm, traffic was lighter than usual along this arterial road through Faribault.
Faribault was among cities in the path of a Thursday into Friday storm that dumped a lot of snow. I estimate a foot here. After a string of exceptionally warm spring-like days, the snow is a bit of a shock. It shouldn’t be. Afterall, this is February, not May, in Minnesota.
Randy blows a path around the car so I can sweep the snow from it without walking knee-deep in snow.
Friday evening my husband and I tag teamed–him with the snowblower and me with the scoop shovel–to clear snow from our property and that of a neighbor. The task took 90 minutes, a lot longer than usual due to ice under the snow. The snowblower couldn’t gain traction and moisture-heavy snow clung to blower blades. I moved slowly, too, nearly slipping twice on the ice.
In the fading light of day, Randy works to blow snow from the driveway.
Add to that, a city snowplow dug into our street, depositing clumps of asphalt at the end of the driveway. Randy figured that out when he hit the hidden chunks with the blower. Not exactly safe to have pavement missiles shooting from the snowblower. So more shoveling ensued.
Snow from the Walmart and mall parking lot is pushed into mini mountains.
Today compacted snow on city streets is melting. Snow is shoved from parking lots into mini man-made mountains, which, if I was still a kid, I would find ideal for King on the Mountain. The sun shone bright on a Winter Wonderland which just days ago looked nothing like winter.
I grew up playing on snow mountains like this on the farm in southwestern Minnesota.
TELL ME: What’s the weather like in your area? Is your landscape snow-covered? Or is your environment one of warmth and greenery?
Copyright 2017 Audrey Kletscher Helbling
Minnesota Prairie Roots 
We didn’t even have a flake here in Roseville. There’d been dire warnings of a big snowstorm so they were way off!
Carol Johansen
My eldest and her family live in Roseville, so I got the word that no snow fell in your fair city.
We had temperatures in the upper 70s yesterday. So all the snow melted, even the piles made in the parking lots. Today it’s raining, blustery, and the temperatures will drop below 30s tonight. So by morning, this region will be an icy green popsicle.
Oh, wow, 70s. I would take that. But then 30s overnight. What a contract of temps.
I’m sure not going to complain about our blustery 40 degree weekend weather. I’m a tad unhappy as it was in the 70’s and even up to 80 on Friday. 😦
I’d take any of those temps.
Our weather in Tucson has been strange also. A few days ago we had temps of about 78. This AM it was just over 30 when I got up and a high of 68 or so. Tomorrow it supposed to be 41 to 58. By Friday 48 to 76. This year we have not had snow, but every couple of years we will get a light touch. Nothing like you’ve had.
What a fluctuation in temps. I’m sure you’re fine with the “no snow” this year.
Brisbane, Queensland – we still have 2 more days of summer. March 1st is officially the first day of autumn. It is still hot, but the forecast is for a week of rain. That means steamy humidity. The heat is almost tolerable when there is no humidity!
I agree about the humidity when combined with heat. Happy first day of autumn in a few days.
We drove up to The Cities yesterday. It appears the storm tracked south of Elko. Above that, barely a dusting of snow. Down here, we got pummeled.
Scooter loves the snow though.
Thanks for that report. Was Interstate 35 closed in your region during the height of the storm?
I don’t know. We stayed in and played board games.
Great plan.
It’s 8 degrees here in Minot, ND, and it looks like we got an inch of new snow last night. We were driving on dry roads after a couple of weeks of off and on good melting. It’s my hope that Spring will come early or on time, and this will be the last of it. I’m dying to start planting my garden! I think I’m going to have to start some seeds on my kitchen table, just to have something new and green around.
Thanks for your report from Minot. Starting seeds sounds like a great way to introduce spring early in North Dakota. Thanks for reading and commenting.
We were supposed to get about 13 inches out of that storm but I bet it was closer to 2 inches.
Well, then we got the 11 you didn’t get. 😦