I hope you are enjoying the warm days with clear skies! Our average high temperature for mid-December is 29 degrees. Our high temperatures the last few days has been actually a little warmer than normal. When it has been so cold for a long time even normal temperatures feel warm! Not that I am complaining about the warm weather now, but I keep thinking where was the warm sunshine last fall when we needed it?

Tom Hoverstad is a scientist at the Southern Research and Outreach Center at Waseca. Tom writes the weekly Weather and Crop Updates each week during the growing season. If you thought it was really cold last fall it was not your imagination. Tom said October was 5 degrees colder than normal and November was 8 degrees colder than normal! In addition it was the coldest October and November on record. Their weather records began in 1915.

The result of the really cold weather in November was soils began to freeze about November 8th. Tom added that lakes froze over on November 13, 2018 which was 2 to 3 weeks earlier than normal. Plus, remember how cold it was last spring? Ice out last spring was the latest on record. The result is we had the shortest open water season that Tom could remember. Hopefully those that enjoy ice fishing are happy!

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