What A Difference A Week Makes!

Last week, much of Minnesota saw record snowfalls for this early in the season followed by unseasonably cold temperatures, but the rest of October and early November should bring more fall-like weather. A trifecta of storms swept the state during the past week, starting with a record-breaking snow event on October 20th. “The Twin Cities had just shy of 8 inches,” says climatologist Kenny Blumenfeld. “I think we came in with an official tally of 7.9 inches for that storm. In parts of the south metro, some of the volunteers, those CoCoRaHS observers, had over 8” and (in some areas) even over 9.” A second storm impacted parts of the state on October 22nd followed by more snow over this past weekend. “The entire state has now seen accumulating snow,” says Blumenfeld. “This would be one of the earliest times on record that we’ve done that.” Temperatures plunged as well. “Some of our high temperatures were among the lowest that we have on record for October,” says Blumenfeld. “We didn’t shatter any records, but we came within striking distance.”

Blumenfeld says the good news is that the early snow and cold doesn’t necessarily mean that we’ll have a brutal winter. “As far as we can tell when we look at the Octobers and Novembers that have been cold and snowy, we don’t really see any connection to the rest of winter.” A case in point, says Blumenfeld, is the winter of 1991-92 which was preceded by the infamous Halloween blizzard. That was a El Nino winter, and the state registered below-normal snowfall despite suffering through the Halloween event and another brutal storm during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Blumenfeld and co-host Jim du Bois also discuss the relationship between snow cover and temperature and a new climate study that looks at the impact even slightly warming global temperatures can have on public health and agriculture.