Again, you used November averages which are misleading but to indulge you, let's go with that. Now, you missed the all important comparison... Intl falls to Ann Arbor. Yikes!
How is using November temperatures misleading? I don't think anyone is proposing that an early September game in Minneapolis is going to be cold.
SECOND... You selected Intl Falls and pulled weather data but in doing so you missed my main point... outsiders make a note of the low temps in MINNESOTA (regardless if they are in Tower, Intl. Falls, Longville, etc.) and assume that is what it is like here state wide. Daily highs and lows are often far more dramatic in terms of differences than monthly averages. Expand it to multiple towns in N. MINN and it really opens the door to regional misunderstandings. Trust me, with a family cabin in N. MINN, I look at the weather in comparison every day and I can tell you it is often dramatic. This early June, I left Ely with temps in the mid 40's and by the time I hit Forest Lake it was 80. This happens a lot.
Temperatures change over the course of the day, and I doubt that it was still mid-40s in Ely by the time you pulled into Forest Lake. Beside that, any days of extreme variation are accounted-for in the averages, which show that, by your own standards, Northern Minnesota isn't
much colder than Minneapolis.
As a former resident of Northern Minnesota, it irks me when Minneapolitans have a skewed idea of Northern Minnesota's weather.
I recall a guy called LAKESBISON posting on this board before the Gopher/NDSU games a few years ago. Several posters ribbed him about how cold Fargo is, in spite of the fact that Fargo averages only about 5 degrees colder than Minneapolis throughout the winter. Of course, fans of teams in places 5 degrees warmer than Minneapolis will do the same thing. It's to be expected.
...kind of like Minnesotans making fun of Iowa for being the number-one hog farming state in the union, even though their own state is the number-three hog farming state in the union.
Think of the local flora and fauna in these three cities: International Falls, Minneapolis, and Ann Arbor. Now think of them in a child's "which one doesn't belong" picture. Which one would you remove? If you don't say International Falls, I challenge you to find all the moose in the woods around the Twin Cities.
Moose Spotted on Medina Golf Course
Minneapolis Star Tribune 11/17/01 Terry Collins
A moose on the loose in the western suburbs has been spotted again, this time trotting through the fairways.
The bull moose was seen Friday on the golf course in Baker Regional Park in Medina, startling several golfers playing a few rounds in the unseasonably warm weather.
"It came on the fairway and ran through the woods," said Medina police officer Jeremy Christenson.
Last month a bull moose was seen in residential areas of Maple Grove.
A regional wildlife supervisor with the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said moose sightings are common this time of year, which is mating season for the animals. As long as they're left alone, they don't usually create problems, the supervisor said.
Christenson said it could very well be that the same moose has made its way southwest.
"They get off course every now and then," he said, before offering a piece of advice: "Enjoy it from a distance."
Hench adds: "They get off course every now and then," Damn, I'm off the course ALL the time, Mooses must be good golfers! "...startling several golfers playing...." Must be one of those 300+ yard drives Moose are famous for running up on them. My advice: Let Moose play through!
The Minneapolis flora are mostly paved and the fauna are mostly homeless people, so there's not much to compare. Before the area became populated, I'd imagine it was mostly prairie, so the flora and fauna would be different than those wooded International Falls regardless of temperature. I'd bet they would have been similar to the grassland of NW MN, though.
You did not mention precip at all.
Can't argue that. It's pretty dry.
That is the WHOLE point, and the amazement is over ignorant fans from other Big 10 schools who think it is perma-frost tundra here.
We're both Gopher fans, and ultimately on the same side. I just approach the perception differently as a fan.
The idea of Minneapolis as a frozen tundra should be encouraged in enemy fan-bases. Opposing players and fans who
expect to feel cold
will feel cold, even if it's only a few degrees different than what they feel at home. To bring up an NFL comparison, Packer fans don't stress themselves out trying to prove that Green Bay isn't
much colder than Chicago , instead they embrace the cold and the perception of cold and let it become a part of their team's identity.
Let Brewster deal with recruits. He's already mastered his double-talk spiel, claiming that Minneapolis isn't any colder than Chicago or Ann Arbor, then in his next utterance saying that we'll use the cold to our advantage.
"Talk of the weather in Minnesota is overblown," Brewster scoffed. "It's no colder in Minnesota than it is in Chicago or Ann Arbor or Columbus, but nobody talks about those places being cold. We're going to practice outdoors and embrace [playing] outdoors and use the elements to our advantage."
