Rain. Really?

This morning I awoke to a strange sound.  Took me a few minutes to realize it was the sound of rain.

Whoa, Nellie!  Rain.  Really?

This is Minnesota.  This is February.  We should be hip deep in snow now.

Dad's car after a snowstorm in the early 1950s.

This is the land of winter carnivals and ice castles and snow sculptures.  We live and breathe ice fishing contests and snowmobile races.    This is the time of year when ski masks are used not to hide identity while robbing a bank but worn to keep faces from freezing off.  The season when by the time we bundle the kids up enough to send them outside to build a snowman, they have so many layers of clothing on they can barely walk.  That is a typical Minnesota winter.

I take a look out my living room window.  Any traces of snow have vanished.  There are puddles of water in the alley across the street.  The weather forecast tells me that by this afternoon the temperature will be nearing 50 degrees.  Predictions are for well above freezing temperatures for this coming week.

I am not complaining.  I am not fond of winter.  But I feel for those who count on a typical Minnesota winter to make their money.  The ski resorts and sellers of snowmobiles and snowshoes can't be doing well right now.  Those towns that host the usual winter celebrations and activities have to be hurting.  And the folks who spend a typical winter plowing and shoveling snow have to be having a really bad year.

And then I remember that winter here is not over - not by a long shot.  We still have March on the horizon.  March is the month where Mother Nature shows her mean side.  About the time we think Spring is just around the corner, a March blizzard will smack us upside the head and remind us that winter isn't done with us just yet.  Here we have the Minnesota State High School Basketball Tournament blizzards.  In the middle of the tournaments held in March each year, we could pretty much count on excessive snow and wind to either slow down the event or bring the games to a screeching halt.

 

So I guess I will wait a bit longer before packing away the wool socks and long johns.  I wouldn't be at all surprised if this warm weather spell is just Mother Nature's way of setting us up for another icy winter blast.  Some say Mother Nature has a sense of humor and I will agree with that notion.  However, that perverse sense of humor in the month of March usually doesn't bode well for we Minnesotans.