'Nuisance' Snow Jabs Minnesotans

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Groundhog Day was a few days ago. But like the Bill Murray movie, it feels like we are living the same day over and over again.

Every day this week, Jerry Hanson, of Crystal, Minn., has had the shovel out just a bunch of "nuisance" snow.

"Just to screw up the driving and make you shovel," he said. "I walk every day and it makes it hard to walk."

It's been that way since Jan. 30. Since the calendar turned to February, nuisance snow is all we've known.

In fact, it has been two-and-a-half weeks since we've seen a day that has qualified as "mostly sunny." The last was on Jan. 21.

WCCO-TV meteorologist Chris Shaffer will tell you Minnesotans are feeling snow fatigue. In boxing terms, we're getting jabbed.

"There was the Mike Tyson punch back in December when we had over 10 inches. Now we are just getting jabbed. Under an inch. Under an inch. Oh, there's 1.2. There's 2 inches. So you get the fatigue," Shaffer said.

But at places like Heinen's Motor Sports in Osseo, Minn., there's no such thing.

"I don't think there was any snowmobile sales last year," said Paul Heinen, the store's owner.

There are sales this year, even though we are 9 inches below average. Nevertheless, nuisance snow is better than nothing.

And as the snow comes down, the sales go up.

"With this freezing snow we've gotten, we've been noticing a lot more phone calls and a lot more people coming in for parts and service," Heinen said.

Shaffer said we got 4.6 inches of snow the entire month of January. We've gotten more than that the first four days of February.