There Ya Go
Iget that I’m a Minnesotan and shouldn’t be surprised when it snows in November, but I wasn’t ready for what happened last Wednesday.
Were you? Didn’t think so.
We knew winter was coming, but I hate it when the calendar tells us that winter doesn’t begin until Dec. 21.
Not true, my friend. If you ask me, winter begins the second I have to put my stocking cap on to cover my follicky-challenged head. And I hate it. Winter doesn’t wait until late December, as if it’s some kind of Christmas present to us.
Winter can hit in October, like it did in 1991 with the Halloween blizzard. Winter can hit in early November like it did in 1940 when the Armistice Day Blizzard crushed the Upper Midwest.
Boy, the latter was a doozy. That day apparently started out nice — we call it the calm before the storm — when afternoon temps were in the 60s. But things quickly got bad as temps dripped and gale-force winds made everyone take notice. The raging blizzard resulted in more than 2 feet in snow in some places, and recordlow temps were reported in Minnesota.
The storm resulted in more than 140 deaths, and to this day, it is known by many as one of Minnesota’s top five weather events of the 20th century.
The Halloween storm was an interesting one. It came a day after we celebrated the Twins’ second World Series championship. It was predicted that Minnesota would get some 10 inches of snow.
Right! More than 20 inches fell on the Friday of that week alone, breaking a state record for the biggest snowfall in a 24-hour period. About 900 schools and businesses closed, and by late afternoon that Friday, the State Patrol responded to more than 400 weather-related traffic accidents.
Last week, or this past weekend for that matter, pales in comparison to what happened in 1940 and 1991, but these days when we see alerts like “winter weather advisory” or “‘blizzard warning” on our phones, we freak out as if a storm of that magnitude is on its way. My, we sure love to hunker down, don’t we?
But again, we’re Minnesotans, and we know this game. We know the car won’t always start in the morning at this time of year. We know we need to take baby steps on an icy sidewalk, disregarding how silly we might look. We know we have to slow down on the highway (even though it takes us until about Dec. 15 to have our brain rewired so we can safely drive in the winter).
We know all this, so why does winter always seem to catch us off guard?
I’ll say it — winter sucks. There is nothing I like about it. As a matter of fact, I’m thinking about petitioning to have Thanksgiving and Christmas moved. Why have a phony Christmas in July, why not just have Christmas then? Thanksgiving can be in June. Think about it — no having to time your travel, or sweat a winter storm that may or may not be on the way.
There are some hoops to jump through to move Christmas — you know, the birth of Christ and all — but why not try?
