We’re currently bracing for super-hot weather here in the mid-Atlantic. The forecast for the next few days is rather scary for a family that has just two window air-conditioner units: 90 today, 99 to 100 degrees with high humidity by  Monday and Tuesday. That’s dangerously hot weather.

We enjoyed a break in the heat two weeks ago with a visit to Blackwater Falls State Park in north-central West Virginia. At an elevation of 3,100 feet, temperatures there were in the 70s and 80s. And the scenery was beautiful. I highly recommend it.

We’ve gotten even lower than yesterday morning: minus 29 degrees (F). This time it’s confirmed by the same temp at Stanton Airfield.

Stayed inside yesterday, but must go out today. This is one of those times I appreciate my car.

Our thermometer read minus 28F this morning. I looked at it for a while to make sure I was reading it right. Nearby Stanton Airfield reports that it was 24 below. Northfield Public Schools are closed today.

These are the coldest temperatures I’ve experienced since moving back to Minnesota in 2004. The coldest temperature I remember from Minnesota winters before that is minus 35 at my parents’ house in suburban Minneapolis.

It was about minus 5 yesterday afternoon here in Northfield. I’m not particularly hardy in the cold, and I have to bundle up. So  when driving my daughter to and from preschool I wore three layers on my legs – two layers of long underwear underneath flannel-lined khakis – and four layers on top, including a fleece jacket underneath a down coat. I also had on two pairs of Smartwool socks inside insulated boots. On my hands I wore thin gloves that I wear underneath mittens. The gloves allow me to do fine work such as buckling children into car seats and fishing keys out of pockets.

While downtown I ran into a friend and fellow member of our local Task Force on Nonmotorized Transportation, Dan Kust, who was getting off his bike. He bikes to his job as a teacher at Northfield Middle School and is a mountaineer and outdoorsman. “You’re amazing, Dan,” I said. I asked him how it was out there. “Brutal,” he said, noting the toll the cold takes on the hands and feet.

Next week we will warm up, with highs above freezing – 60 degrees warmer than this morning!

It’s minus 23 F right now according to my thermometer and the Stanton Airfield weather station. Their three-day summary shows that the temp has been dropping steadily and may fall even lower. Wind chill is minus 37 F!

Much of the Upper Midwest received a late-winter wallop of snow yesterday, with as much as 8 inches falling in parts of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Can you see the birds in the photo above? Can’t they plow the bird feeders around here?

As someone said on the radio yesterday, if this had happened one day later – on the first day of April rather than the last day of March – I’d have been less accepting of this snowfall. As it is, the sun will dispatch this stuff soon, and we can move on to the next season. At least we hope we can.

Below is the scene in our courtyard, as seen through patio doors.

Thank goodness the Upper Midwest has meteorologist Paul Douglas helping to draw attention to the threat from global warming. These words from Mr. Douglas’s StarTribune weather column today really caught my attention:

“Paul, you pinhead, doesn’t our recent arctic streak prove that global warming is a hoax?” With all due respect, no. From -11 last Wednesday to 44 yesterday in St. Paul, 48 in Red Wing, these local, erratic weather spasms are not the same thing as long-term climate trends measured globally over the last generation. Worldwide 2007 was the 5th warmest, last year the 10th warmest for the U.S. since 1895. So what? “Climate change over the next 20 years could result in a global catastrophe costing millions of lives in wars and natural disasters – disruption and conflict will be endemic features of life – the threat to global stability vastly eclipses that of terrorism.” More left-leaning spew from the liberal elite? No. Those are but a few of the conclusions from a secret Pentagon report, recently obtained by the U.K. newspaper, The Observer. “Climate change should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a U.S. national security concern,” says the lead authors. I don’t consider myself an alarmist or a so-called “warmist”. I am a realist. No, science is never 100% certain about anything, but what is the more acceptable risk, taking some action now and being wrong, or doing nothing, rolling the dice, gambling that a 37% spike in greenhouse gases will have no effect? It’s basic risk analysis.

Wow. I agree with what Mr. Douglas has said here, but I think the report he is citing is not all that recent. The Observer article he cites is dated February 22, 2004. I guess “recent” is a rather loose term.

Still, Paul, thanks for bringing this up. I’m hearing more about “global climate chaos” lately, so the 2004 (or earlier) report is still relevant.

Let’s elevate global warming to a national security concern and deal with it. Those of you concerned about national security, please read the peer-reviewed science (or the work of a journalist who has read it) and get on board this train. It also has room for those of you who want to make and save some money from clean energy and energy efficiency.

I’ve heard this winter in the Upper Midwest described as “your father’s winter” – meaning it’s like a winter in days of yore. Or perhaps, to be gender-neutral, we should say this winter is “your parents’ winter.”

We’ve had a handful of days here in southern Minnesota, including this morning, that have begun with temperatures around 16 below zero – thankfully no colder than that. That’s cold enough. Currently we’re reaching the nadir of a cold spell that is supposed to moderate in a couple of days.

Making things worse, I’m having some circulation problems in my hands and feet – a numb tingling that follows exposure to cold. Is it the result of some allergy medication that I’m taking? Some of the medical literature leads me to think that, and I will see a doctor today. Is it Raynaud’s disease, a condition my father has had, in which the body has an exaggerated response to cold temperatures? Is it the result of biking in twenty-degree temperatures? Is it because I haven’t been exercising enough? Or am I just getting old? Time will tell, and I can only hope that I’ll be able to resume a reasonably active life outdoors in winter.

This morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow on the ground and cold temperatures. It was all of 7 degrees (F) outside. And a lot more snow is expected, with the National Weather Service predicting a 100 percent (!) chance of snow tomorrow as a low-pressure system moves in from the southwest.

The impending storm makes me thankful that we purchased winter tires for our only car last winter. You can see the tread of our Michelin X-Ice tires in the photo above. I had the tires installed again in early November as this winter got underway.

I had never used winter tires before, despite having lived in Minnesota for most of my life. I drive carefully and, aside from some slipping and sliding at the beginning of each winter driving season as I become reacquainted with slick roads, have had few problems.

My opinion on winter tires changed last year when, after one of the first snowfalls of the season, I put too heavy a foot on the brakes, foolishly locked them up (failing to pump them), and slid into a curb on a quiet residential street. That messed up our car’s tie rods and required an expensive repair. That experience, reinforced by my wife’s fears of driving in winter (she is a Southerner), led me to do some research on winter tires. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been snowing all day here today, and we have a couple of inches on the ground. I like winter, but not in mid-April! Come to think of it, I don’t like snow in early April either.
I’m glad I still have the snow tires on our car. I’ll still have them taken off tomorrow, but they’ll be useful today, much to my surprise.

The tulip shoots in our garden are nestled in a half-inch of snow or so this morning – not a lot, but more than we’d like for April. Parts of northern Minnesota – Brainerd and Duluth, for example – had over a foot of snow with the storm system that went through yesterday.

Our thermometer here in south-central Minnesota read 16 degrees this morning and the radio said wind chills were around zero – too cold to ride the bike this morning. It was only a couple of weeks ago that we had a record high of 81 degrees. Things will stay cold for the next few days.

Ah, we’re enjoying the weather roller coaster of the Upper Midwest.