The Winter Reality Is Setting In
By Lindsey Seavert, WCCO-TV
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The warm weekend weather seems to have spoiled Minnesotans. People who came out in their spring attire will be piling the layers back on this weekend as more snow approaches.
At Lake Calhoun, the water is freezing back over already and winter is once again a reality.
"I was sad when it thawed, my wife and I can ski again," said Erik Storlie, of Minneapolis, who was jogging around the lake even as temperatures dropped Friday.
The weather is right on target for Danny Friedman and Amanda Doran, also of Minneapolis, who practiced at a Lake Calhoun archery range.
"I didn't think winter was over yet, it seemed too early," said Doran.
WCCO-TV meteorologists say last week the temperature jumped 45 degrees in 5 days, with a high of 3 degrees on Feb. 8 and a high of 48 degrees on Feb. 13.
The weather team has tracked 61.1 inches of snow so far this season, around five more inches than average. Their records show March is usually the second snowiest month in Minnesota, with an average of more around 10.5 inches of snow in March, and snowflakes as late as the end of May.
"I am from Duluth, so this is temperate for us," said Friedman, who calls the February weather paradise. "You see people out in shorts, wait till this weekend, they are going to be running fast, icicles for legs."
Over at the Chambers Hotel Ice Bar on Hennepin Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, cold weather is back in business. Customers crowded around a fire outside Friday night.
The bar was closed Thursday, with warmer temperatures it was in danger of melting.
"We are going to try and keep it open to mid-March, if possible, Mother Nature willing," said bartender Janet Rasmussen.
The city of Minneapolis closed all its ice rinks Thursday due to "unseasonably warm temperatures," but by this weekend, it seems ice skating weather could be back.
