By Todd Nelson, filling in for Douglas:
Not sure about you, but I did a double take when I looked out the window Sunday morning. Yes, that was SNOW! While the Twin Cities metro only managed a minor dusting on patio furniture, farmers in far southern Minnesota reported nearly 1 to 2 inches of slush on combines and in fields.
It's been a strange year. We seemed to have skipped spring, going from an April blizzard to highs in the 90s and 100s only a month later. Mid-September featured highs in the 80s and 90s, and now we're already throwing the "S" word around.
We certainly live in the Super Bowl of weather: extreme ranges in temperatures to everything except storms with names — and I think most of us can live without those.
By the way, the average first 1-inch snowfall event in Minneapolis typically occurs in mid-November, while the earliest was on Sept. 26 in 1942.
I'm happy to report that dry and mostly sunny weather will persist over the next several days. Highs will even approach 60 by Thursday!