The Horror! Global Warming to Bring Milder Winters, Longer Growing Seasons to Minnesota

NewImageCO2 is plant food, not poison. This goes back to what I’ve said from the beginning: a warmer earth is much better than a colder earth. 

With climate change, Minnesota will not be as we know it

By Hannah Jones [email protected]

The Freshwater Society and the Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office Water Patrol track ice-out dates for Lake Minnetonka. In some places, such as Prior Lake, people watch for ice-in dates, too.

But this annual Minnesota tradition is gradually going to change as Minnesota feels the effects of climate change. Sam Potter, a Minnesota native with a doctorate in atmospheric and oceanic sciences from Princeton University, can tell you just how much it has changed already.

“This is a lot of what global warming is. It’s moving toward a new state,” he said.

Potter said over the last 30 years, the average Minnesota temperature has warmed nearly 2 degrees.

That may not seem like much, and in reality, climate change’s effect on Minnesota life isn’t as cut and dried as the word “warming” would imply. For instance, from 1951 to 1980, in a given month, temperatures could fluctuate from 13 degrees below average to 15 above. For the last 30 years, that trend has shifted. The range is now from 12 below to more than 21 above.

“This is the big fingerprint of global warming — extremes,” he said.

That means a number of things. It means there will be more “tropical” nights when the temperature doesn’t drop below 68 degrees. It means growing seasons will be longer but peppered with more extreme storms. It means winters will be milder. Summers will be hotter. More rain, less snow.

Via SW News Media.