Yes folks, this is a completely serious question (and no, this doesn't mean it won't still be a warm Summer necessarily, it means that we are in the process of going into an ice age)
Maybe some of you aren't familiar (being that the news doesn't give a rats ass about us in the midwest due to the bombings...and just in general), but areas of Minnesota are still in the brunt of a winter that has literally never been seen in the recordbooks.
Lets just start out with temperatures: Through April 18th, St. Cloud MN is about 9.8° F below average for temperature in April. The coldest April in the entire recordbooks was about 7.5° F below average. Our temperatures through Tuesday are supposed to remain at 35-45° highs, which is 15-25° below avearge. After that, we are supposed to finally hit 50° for the first time on April 25th (Still 10° below average). The latest 50° day ever in St. Cloud MN is April 20th, so that record will be broken. The latest 60 degree day ever is April 26th. If the models can be believed, we will finally hit 60 on April 29th, so that record will be broken. Now, if you take the temperatures predicted by models through the end of the month, St. Cloud should wind up closer to about 11° below average for the month of April. This isn't just barely breaking the record (I can understand records being broken by a little), it is absolutely smashing it beyond belief (Breaking the coldest month on record by 3.5° for a whole month is completely unheard of).
Now, lets just go ahead and talk about snowfall: In April, St. Cloud MN averages 3" of snowfall, with an average of 2 days of accumulating (Trace or higher) snow for the month. On April 5th, a trace of snow was seen (no big deal). On April 10th, the first winter storm warning for April of this year was issued. Predictions were for 8-10" of snow to fall. We received a trace on April 10th, 8.7" April 11th, 1.4" April 12th, .4" April 13th, .4" April 14th, and a trace April 15th. Almost immediately after this storm passed, another winter storm watch was issued with predictions of 6-8" of snow to fall. On April 17, we received 1.1", with an additional 9.4" on April 18th (there is no measurement yet April 19th. Many locations including my own house received totals of 13.5-14" in this snowstorm). This puts the total snowfall for April at 21.4" officially (with localized areas as high as 25"). This doesn't sound like a big deal, but this hasn't happened since 1893, when St. Cloud received 24" on April 19th, and 12" on April 26th. That year wasn't NEARLY as cold though. To tip this off, we have had 10 days now with a trace or more snowfall so far this month. So is it done? Not quite. Models have hinted at another 2-6" this saturday/sunday, with more lingering snow showers into next week, with the possibility of 3-4 more days having at least trace accumulations (for a total of 13-14 days this month with at least a trace).
Ok, so maybe we aren't going into an ice age (although this is some darned crazy weather), but for all those global warming fanatics, I hope you realize it only takes a few years to dive deep into an ice age.
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