MINNEAPOLIS — The bitter cold is finally here and staying long enough to impact Minnesota waterways.
In fact, most of the lakes just froze over the weekend. That's forcing organizers of the longtime Art Shanty Projects on Lake Harriet to postpone a whole week.
Climatologists say this is the longest in almost 150 years that it has taken lakes in Minnesota to freeze over.
The mild winter is due to a super El Niño, an event that happens every couple decades. But scientists say this year's event rivals that of 1877, perhaps the strongest ever on record.
"It's unreal, I mean for all of us," said Erin Lavelle, the Art Shanty Projects Artistic Director. "We have never even thought about mid-January having open water, but most of the lake was still open water on Saturday."
Lavelle says Lake Harriet finally froze over Sunday. When she measured its thickness two days later, it was about nine inches thick some 250' from shore.
"This week, the sub-zero temperatures, we are loving," said Lavelle. "Ice is building very quickly."
It's still about an inch shy, though, of what officials require for events like Lavelle's, forcing it to open on Jan. 27 instead of the 20. Now in it's 20th year, artists create whimsical, but temporary, structures that draw thousands of visitors.
"It is the most isolating season for many people and we really do what we do to bring people together," said Lavelle.
This season, though, is one for the record books. December is rivaling that of 1877 when senior climatologist for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Kenneth Blumenfeld says was the warmest super El Niño ever.
"The sorts of people taking daily notes in the late 1800s were pretty meticulous and measured, but they did note that they had never seen anything like this," said Blumenfeld.
"And then we also know from notes that it was unbelievably warm and there was open water on the Mississippi, both sides of Lake Pepin, and even some northern lakes," said Blumenfeld. "It was warm, there wasn’t a lot of frost, it was muddy and people had a hard time getting around and moving goods to other locations."
Blumenfeld is also calling this current cold snap "wimpy" compared to other Minnesota winters, saying that the climate, in general, is warming.
"El Niño just adds on top of that warming and that's why with a lesser El Niño, we can break old records," said Blumenfeld.
Lavelle just hopes winter sticks around long enough to celebrate it and bring the community together through art.
Despite pushing back when it opens, the Art Shanty Projects will end as scheduled on Feb. 11, and it still includes food trucks and performances.
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