Winter Survival
Winter survival training, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minnesota winters can be daunting, and a bit difficult to get used to. We don’t have the coldest winters in the country (a dubious honor held by Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit), nor the snowiest (the lake-effect snows of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and Upstate New York beat us out by a long shot), but our winters can be long, bleak, and dark. Correction: actually, our chilly weather is bested by Fairbanks, Mt. Washington, and Fargo, according to NOAA data that includes smaller cities and groups metropolitan areas; Milwaukee, Chicago, and Detroit are in fact a bit warmer than the Twin Cities. But I stand by my assertions about the length and relative bleakness of our winter season, as well as our standing on the snow charts. When Arctic air sweeps down from Canada or across the plains from the Dakotas, there’s nothing to stop the wind from blowing.
When faced with a Minnesota winter, there really are only two choices: retreat in fear and loathing, or embrace the chill. The latter really is the best choice. As Mark Twain quipped, “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” Nothing you do will stop winter from coming, or make it leave sooner; finding the positive in the cold is the only path to happiness.
With that in mind, we Minnesotans acclimate our children early to the winter. Babies are bundled up in snowsuits and scarves and blankets; as soon as they can dress themselves, kids learn the wisdom of layering; and though there’s some grumbling at the beginning, most eventually come around, and look forward to sledding, skating, skiing, and snowshoeing. (The rest beg to spend the winter with their grandparents in Arizona, and dream of careers as cruise ship directors and scuba instructors.) Snow days are few and far between–it takes more than a few inches of snow or a stretch of sub-zero temperatures to shut down Minnesota schools–so many important lessons in winter survival are learned at the bus stop.
[...] wait for it… living in the Twin Cities. (I have a really hard time believing that Detroit and Chicago have colder winters than we do here, but okay.) They’re tweeting things about photos and video from this weekend’s Art Sled [...]
Hi, The reason that the Twin Cities don’t have the coldest weather according to the website you referenced is because they only look at cities with a population of 400,000+. Since neither Minneapolis or St. Paul is that large, we don’t make their list. A more accurate list would look at metro areas.
Thanks for the correction! That’s what I get for trusting Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” button.
I found a much more extensive list, http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0762183.html, based on NOAA data, which lists Minneapolis and St. Paul as a single unit and shows us as #7 for chilly January temperatures, behind such hot-spots as Fairbanks, AK, Mt. Washington, NH, and Fargo, ND. Chicago and Detroit are a bit warmer than us.
That original list seemed counter-intuitive enough to be interesting; I should have dug a little deeper.
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