http://www.startribune.com/local/203919611.htmlThat image is of Duluth, which received 17" more snow from the storm that affected us the past few days. Here, we only got 1" from the storm but there's
still 24" of snow on the ground from past storms.
Minnesota had its earliest spring on record in 2012. Almost cruelly, spring 2013 is one of the latest on record, with the distinct possibility of being the latest.
With temperatures in the low teens and single digits, or the -14*F set in Embarrass, MN (aptly named for the embarrassingly low temperatures they record) means lakes are making ice still. International Falls blew their record low sky high this morning when it dropped to 4*F. The old record? 18*F in 1966.
Also noteworthy: It still hasn't reached 50*F in Fargo, ND this year... the previous latest date was April 17th, 1881. Fargo might hit 50*F late next week. But they're flipping out about the 40% chance of a record crest of the Red River... and the models aren't really as accurate as usual because they've never had a spring thaw that failed to start for so long. The scare is that pushing it back to the last week of April greatly increases our chances of a sudden, drastic warm up (into the 60s and 70s) with heavy convective rain events.
To put it in perspective, in 2012... every one of the state's 15,000 lakes were ice free by April 10th. By April 10th this year, there was a handful of lakes in the far south-central and southwestern part of the state that had no ice. But many of those set records for latest ice out date.
While there are whispers of a pattern change, there is a high likelihood that a significant portion of the state will be unfishable for the walleye fishing opener on May 11th.
One of the problems with the delay to spring has been the build up of robins in southeastern Minnesota. They won't go further north because there's no food for them. So as more and more arrive from points south, there has been a traffic jam of sorts.
Right now almost the entire state has passed the 99th percentile threshold for snow depth, with much of the state currently setting records. This will only reinforce the cool weather as soil temperatures are very slow to rise after the prolonged cold.
Simply put.. there has never been a warmer-than-normal May after a significantly cold March and April. Bah humbug
