Cold snaps and warm spells will battle for dominance in February

Last month, retired lead forecaster Craig Sanders of the National Weather Service Duluth Forecast Office noted signs of the dreaded "polar vortex" returning in late January of this year. It sure looks like he was right! Several daily cold-temperature records were set for a few of our towns last month. There's even been talk of setting a new state record, after spending nearly 23 years in the hands of Tower-Soudan. This article was written just before the deep freeze hit, so if the record was indeed broken, you'll know it by the time this hits print.

As this region's longest-serving weatherperson, I remember that record-breaking Groundhog Day in 1996 very well. Several days earlier, forecast indicators told George Kessler and me that a severe cold snap was coming and that the Embarrass Valley was where the coldest of the cold would be. The big question was whether the record would be set at the Tower 3S weather station or at the Embarrass station. George and I chose Tower. All the other TV stations chose Embarrass.

(Over the years, rumor has grown that those other TV stations used so much power at Charlie Fowler's weather station that they knocked out his electronic thermometer, so by default Kathy Hoppa at Tower 3S got the record. Well, first: TV photographers all work off battery power. Second, official National Weather Service thermometers aren't electric - they're high-quality government-issue mercury thermometers. Years later at a Finnfest, Charlie told me what happened in Embarrass: It simply got so cold that the mercury in the thermometer separated.)

I was up in Tower a few hours before the record was set, to do a news story on how folks were handling the cold. At that time, it was "only" 47 below. Just after 9 o'clock the next morning, with Charlie out of the running due to the failure of his official thermometer, Kathy took the record at minus 60. Our reporter, Tameka Snowden, was on scene for the event. She saw folks hammering nails with bananas to celebrate the event. Not long after, she left broadcasting and moved to Mexico City. Severe cold must do that to a person!

This February may have its own cold snaps. January got pretty cold, with some mornings around minus 40 or even 50 below zero. In general, though, the month should be warmer than normal with a departure from normal mean of 3 degrees. Snow totals may end up 5 inches below standard. The forecast for Feb. 1-3 calls for a bitterly cold period with a few flurries. Feb. 4-8 will be cold, too, with slightly more substantial snows. Feb. 9-14 will be much milder. But another cold snap could hit Feb. 15-18. A warm spell should come calling Feb. 19-21, possibly followed by an even warmer spell perhaps bringing rain showers rather than snow showers.

And finally, the results of the stats for 2018 have been compiled: Minneapolis had an annual departure from normal mean of 0.2 degree. Duluth had a DFN of 0.5 degree. International Falls came up cooler than normal by a hair, with a departure from normal of minus 0.4 degree.

Best wishes to everyone on handling any cold snaps that may come to town this February. Please don't let them scare you into moving to Central America to escape!