A record-breaking warm, snowless winter confounds US Midwesterners

ST PAUL, Minnesota – Ms Lucy Wallace, a recent transplant from San Diego, had been warned about the bone-chilling winters of her new home town, Minneapolis. She bought a US$900 (S$1,200) winter coat, two pairs of boots and metal spikes to make her running shoes usable on icy sidewalks.

So she was at once befuddled and relieved by the record-breaking warm temperatures that made for a rare snowless winter holiday week in much of the Upper Midwest.

“I spent hundreds of dollars on a new wardrobe and winter gear that so far has gone totally unused,” said Ms Wallace, 35, who ran 8km on Christmas Day wearing a T-shirt. “Here I am wearing my San Diego wardrobe in December in Minneapolis.”

A high of 12 deg C made this Christmas Day the warmest on record in the Minneapolis area, according to the United States National Weather Service.

Across much of the region, people contended with a string of days heading into the new year that felt like a mild autumn. Ice fishing was particularly perilous on lakes covered by thin ice caps.

And a hack to host large holiday gatherings was foiled.

“Thinking of all the Minnesota families who rely on using the porch as an extra freezer during Christmas entertaining when it’s almost (10 deg C) outside,” Minnesota Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan wrote on text-based app Threads.

It is not unprecedented to have a warm or snowless Christmas in Minnesota. But such days are likely to become increasingly common because of climate change, said Professor Jessica Hellmann, director of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota.

“It’s a big cultural shift to experience (10 deg C) yesterday and how disorienting that is from a geographic perspective,” Prof Hellmann said in an interview on Dec 26. “It’s a visceral feeling of what climate change looks and feels like for people who are accustomed to living in a particular climate.”

In northern Minnesota, emergency workers have warned people to stay off lakes that are covered by an unusually thin layer of ice.

Last week, a Cessna plane that landed on Upper Red Lake broke through the ice, according to Beltrami County sheriff Jason Riggs.

“Upon landing, the absence of snow resulted in the plane having difficulty slowing down,” he said in a statement. “Eventually the plane slid into an area of thin ice and the nose of the plane broke through into open water.”

The plane’s two occupants, who had flown from Michigan for a day of ice fishing, were rescued.

In nearby Becker County, a 67-year-old man was found dead on Dec 23 after his all-terrain vehicle fell through thin ice, according to the Becker County Sheriff’s Office.

Mr Ted Bonde, president of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Fishing Association, said ice-fishing competitions in much of the state had been pushed back at least a week as winter-time anglers waited impatiently for the cold to set in.

“I know nature is doing this and it’s going to turn around at some point, it’s just a matter of time,” Mr Bonde said, adding that “once it happens, there’s going to be a mad rush to get out there”.

Mr Bonde, who coaches the high-school fishing team in Kiel, Wisconsin, about 72km south of Green Bay, said that on Dec 10, there was 7.6cm of ice – enough to walk on – in his area. No longer.

“It’s all gone,” he said. “Everybody is getting their boats back out where there used to be ice.”

Milwaukee, which has recorded seven days above 10 deg C so far in December, is on track for its warmest December and its warmest year on record, according to Mr Cameron Miller, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Milwaukee.

On Christmas Day, the high was 11 deg C – far above the average high of 1 deg C – and it dipped down overnight to only 9 deg C, the warmest low temperature on record for the date, Mr Miller said.

With “only a trace” of snow in December, it has not been an ideal season for winter sports.

“I am an avid cross-country skier, and this kind of weather is abysmal for someone like me,” Mr Miller said.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said he had enjoyed taking his daughter to the playground in late December, a month later than in years past.

An avid runner, he has appreciated the absence of snow and ice on trails and sidewalks.

But there is something deeply unsettling about his first snowless Christmas in Minneapolis, said Mr Frey, who has made fighting climate change a priority.

“Any enjoyment of the warmth is overshadowed by concern for what’s going on,” Mr Frey said. “It’s a very eerie and disconcerting kind of enjoyment because it makes you wonder what’s yet to come.”

The unseasonable warmth was expected to shift east on Dec 26 and 27, with high temperatures climbing about 6 deg C to 11 deg C above normal from the Upper Midwest across the Great Lakes, according to the National Weather Service.

Mild temperatures were also forecast along the East Coast, with highs of about 10 deg C in the mid-Atlantic and temperatures around 16 deg C in the Carolinas. NYTIMES