Minnesota's "Winter"

I know I complained a week or so ago about it being cold, but I knew it wasn't really. It seemed that way because it had been abnormally warm through December, and none of our bodies had gotten ready for winter, so when early January slipped into almost normal Minnesota temperatures for a couple of weeks, it seemed a bit brutal.

But the lowest it got (overnight) was a good 10 degrees warmer than the average low for our winters, and now — with more than a week left in January — we're about to have more than a week of highs above freezing. There may even be a few nights where it doesn't go below freezing, though that's less likely. 

I've been in Minnesota for almost 40 years, and I'm pretty sure this has not happened in January for that long since I've been here. 

Paul Douglas, one of our locally famous meteorologists, said on Twitter,

Dr. Mark Seeley predicts the warmest meteorological winter (December 1 - February 29) on record, even milder than 1997-1998. Looking at predicted 850mb temp. anomalies for the first week of February I believe him. NWS says "winter heat wave." Words that don't belong together:

With that graphic, which looks like an anti-polar vortex. 

We have a half inch or less of snow on the ground here at the moment, and as this week of temperatures above freezing gets going, that will be gone soon. If this is truly an early spring... well, we'll see. 

But if it does seem that way, we know that it's likely to still have at least some late frosts, and possibly a few good snow storms in March (or April) after the plants start coming up and the trees bud out.

Backlash winter is predictable, for at least a few days. There's never a consistent spring, if it comes too early.