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Minnesota State University, Mankato
WEDNESDAY
H 31 • L 10
THURSDAY
H 13 • L 2
Mankato Melts into a Warm Winter
angela kukowski • msu reporter ELISE KONERZA
staff writer
This season, instead of bundling up head-to-toe, shoveling driveways, and scraping car windows, Minnesotans revel in the war m weather. For some people it is a cause for concer n. Unsure of why the weather has taken a tur n could it correlate to global war ming or possibly the proclaimed theories of the 2012 end of the world. Winter recreational activity was delayed far into the season this year. Snowmobiling and ice f ishing have seen the biggest effect of the war m weather. Though it has snowed an estimation of eight inches, according to Russ Joseph,
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meteorologist of K EYC-TV of Mankato, you could always expect the next day to be a slushy mess of melting snow and ice. To this date, the recorded snowfall was 38.5 inches. Ice f ishers were heavily war ned of the dangerously thin ice. A minimum of four inches is required for walking, at least. High temperature records were broken Thursday and Friday with highs of 50 degrees, and some southwester n Minnesota cities topped almost 60 degrees. In Mankato a nearly 50 year record for high temperatures was broken by Thursday’s 52 degrees over the 45 degrees in 1958. The coldest day repor ted this winter
was November 17th at 10 degrees, according to the National Weather Ser vice statistics. “I think the snowless winter is awful, I want to go snowboard and go play hockey, but I can’t do any of the fun winter things that I do ever y year. Since it’s still cold you can’t do anything outside so we’re kind of just stuck indoors,” said Dylan James, an engineering student at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Originally, forecasters and meteorologists predicted that this winter was going to be snowy and cold. Visibly, the perceptions were incor rect. Joe Calderone, a senior forecaster with the Natural
Weather Ser vice at WCCO supplements our questions with answers. Calderone points out that Pacif ic Ocean temperatures have increased immensely when it was predicted to be below nor mal. He adds that La Nina had been a weakening trend and the Nor th Atlantic Oscillation are factors in the unusually war m winter. Chris Schaeffer, lead meteorologist at WCCO, repor ted that this winter is ver y similar to the winter of 2006. Elmer Beauregard, a writer for Minnesotans for Global War ming, believes there is a cor relation with the solar cycle and that this occurs ever y 11 years. The expected ar rival of this
war m weather was actually expected one year ago, but was delayed until now. Speaking with residents of Minnesota, it seemed as though there is almost a common reaction: people really don’t mind the war m winter. “I don’t really like driving in the snow, so this winter has been stressfree for me,” said MSU dietetics student Brianna McLaughlin. Undeniably, the weather is unpredictable, but at least we can say we didn’t have a snowless New Year’s Eve. K EYC-TV weather predictions show a 40 percent chance of snow Wednesday, and temperatures dropping into the teens.
MINNESOTA BEATLE PROJECT IS AT IT AGAIN - PAGE 9