Another Reason I’m Glad I Live In Southeastern Minnesota

Getting our first snow of the season on Veteran's Day, November 11th, sure seemed a little early, if you ask me-- about a month early! Plus, Mother Nature's continued icy grip has set records for the lowest high temperature here in Rochester the past two days, as well. But after seeing the weather residents of western New York state are dealing with yesterday and today, I'll take our weather here in southeastern Minnesota!

As I was filling up the SUV this morning at the new Holiday on Valleyhigh Road in northwest Rochester, the winds were whipping the snow around, putting those wind chill readings below zero. It felt like it was the middle of February, not the middle of November! Of course, we already know Rochester is one of the top 10 windiest cities in the country, according to the National Weather Service, so the fact that it was windy wasn't surprising. That fact that it was so blasted cold, though, so early in the season-- and, actually, it's not even "winter" yet-- did catch me a little off guard.

I guess our recent cold snap is better, however, than the 5-feet of snow residents of Buffalo and western New York state are dealing with today. Thanks to those lake effect storms (where weather systems pick up moisture from the not-yet-frozen Lake Eerie and dump massive amounts of snow on the surrounding areas) those residents, while somewhat used to it, are really getting a lot of the white stuff.  Could you imagine having to deal with 5 feet of snow?!?  No thanks!

Here's a cool video that shows the lake effect storm as it rolled into Buffalo earlier this week...