Statewide in Minnesota these are the coldest weeks of winter, and nothing is static outdoors.
Whitetail bucks continue to drop their antlers. Red foxes are normally solitary but now can be observed in pairs as their mating season approaches. Some great-horned owls have begun laying eggs or even incubating. Wintering-over mourning doves, commonly seen at feeding stations in the past 30 years, prefer to eat cracked corn, millet and other seeds scattered on the ground in protected spots and directly under a traditional feeder on a pole. Black bear cubs are born this time of year while their mothers are still sleeping.
Thinking about weather, it's interesting to note that record temperatures have been as high as 114 degrees (July 6, 1936, in Moorhead), and as low as 60 below (Feb. 2, 1996, at Tower), a 174-degree range that is unrivaled over most of Earth.
The record low temperature for the Twin Cities is 41 below set Jan. 21, 1888. An arctic air outbreak from 5 p.m. Dec. 31, 1911, to 1 p.m. Jan. 8, 1912, produced 186 consecutive hours of below-zero weather in the Twin Cities, second only to a spell of 226 hours in January 1864. In 2021, by mid-January we in the metro area had experienced only two days with below-zero temperatures, when 24 days with subzero readings is normal here for a winter season.
Listed below are a few noteworthy low temperature readings from history in Minnesota. These temperatures were taken 6 feet off the ground, in weather instrument shelters, and are not windchill temperatures.
• 59 below at Leech Lake Dam (Cass County), Feb. 9, 1899.
• 59 below in Moorhead on Feb. 16, 1903.
• 57 below in Embarrass on Jan. 20 and 21, 1996.
