A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news
Sulo Wakefield, 2, does his part with the snow piled up last weekend at home in Wrenshall with parents Dino and Kristen. It's been a trying winter as snow totals have gone above normal ranges across Carlton County.
Cindy Kunz of Esko has seen the snow pile up in her yard, nearly reaching the beacon on her light pole.
Ice mushrooms spouted in a Cloquet yard recently and looked lovely in the new snow that dropped last weekend.
What's with all the snow? It's a question everyone is asking after another weekend of digging out and another 6-inches-or-more burst forecasted as this issue of the Pine Knot went to press.
We are above average is all we can tell you right now, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Weather Service data.
There are variable snowfall amounts in the area, recorded since the first light snowfall way back in October. Officially, between 64 and 72 inches of snow has fallen in Cloquet this winter versus more than 114 inches in Duluth. One reading from just outside of Cloquet, to the northeast, shows 77 inches. The Cloquet Forestry Center has recorded 84.5 inches.
The average seasonal snowfall for the area around Cloquet is about 66 inches. If March and April keep walloping us, the record snowfall amount set in 1951 - 114 inches - could be reached.
To repeat, official seasonal snowfall amounts vary wildly depending on location in Carlton County.
Colloquial snowfall amounts likely vary as well.
Just outside of Moose Lake, the recorded seasonal amount is about 58 inches. Holyoke, in the southeast, has seen 97 inches fall. And between Carlton and Esko, the recording is 108 inches, which makes sense, as they are closer to the Duluth whirlpool effect off Lake Superior. The Twin Ports are having far-above-normal snow for the season.
But a winter can't be marked by the snow numbers alone. We've seen wild winters when it comes to snow as recently as the 2013 to 2015 seasons, when more than 100 inches fell in Cloquet. But this winter, it seems the snow is coming in constant dribs and drabs, with weekly storms of heavier fluff coming like clockwork every 10 days or so.
Take mid-January and through February, for instance, when it seemed like it snowed every day, nonstop. But less than 17 total inches fell in the Cloquet area, a great example of how numbers don't always tell the story. An inch here, and inch there, with little melt, has meant the snow has piled up and room for it all has closed in around all of our spaces. The storm last week of 8-plus inches alone dumped half of the amount accumulated in the 45 days of mid-January through February.
There has been great debate in the Pine Knot office about the NOAA and NWS numbers. It just seems like so much more snow than the official readings. We're certain many others feel the same way.
Simply put, the snow has grown tiresome, for even the most avid of winter adventurers.
Of course, it could be worse. There haven't been many arctic days this winter, and, halfway through March, we could be done with sustained sub-zero temperature worries. The National Weather Service reported that by the end of February, the average temperature was one to three degrees higher than average this winter.
The melt will be interesting, for sure, as the NWS has predicted an "above normal" spring flood outlook.
