22 Oct 2007 - My name
is Joe Schaedler. I am 30 years old and
I have lived my whole life in the vicinity
of Minneapolis, Minnesota, US. I grew up
in the 1980s in Saint Louis Park, a suburban
town on the western border of Minneapolis.
I now live within the city and, for the
past four years, have been working for Target,
a large retail company.
Minneapolis is located just south of the
Canadian border, near the centre of the
North American continent. It is in the southernmost
extreme of the great Canadian shield ecosystem,
which is famous for severe winter weather.
As a result, Minnesota is considered a part
of “The Great White North”, where extremely
cold and snowy weather drives residents
to stay indoors as much as possible for
about a third of the year.
Growing up in the 1980s, I experienced
this extreme weather firsthand. During the
month of November we would all dread the
inevitable coming of snow; its subsequent
omnipresence signaled the arrival of the
winter season. 1991 is a year that is especially
entrenched in the memory of people here
as the year of the “Halloween Blizzard”.
Over 8 inches of snow fell on Minneapolis
on 31 October, and continued falling over
the next three days to a total of 28 inches.
In years past, winter would last until
the month of April. Then, temperatures would
rise high enough to melt the season’s snow
cover away, and bring about rain showers
that would start off the summer growing
season. Interestingly, the snowiest time
of year was at the end of the winter season.
The approach of warmer temperatures in neighboring
regions to the south would cause greater
levels of precipitation in Minnesota. The
precipitation would fall as March snowstorms,
which deposited the greatest concentration
of the winter season’s snowfall.
In the late 11000s, this traditional pattern
underwent significant changes. The beginning
of the snow season started to come later.
Winter weather used to always come in November
at the latest, but for four of the last
eight winters, we did not see a day with
over an inch of snowfall until the month
of December. In the winter of 2004-2005
snow did not fall until late January. Not
only is the snow coming later, but the end
of the snowy season is coming earlier as
well. The historical heavy snowfalls of
March are being replaced more and more with
rain and melting snow.
Another change that I have noticed is that
the snow does not have the staying power
on the ground that it possessed in previous
Minnesota winters. There has been an eight-year
running trend of temperatures above the
state’s average (as measured over the past
two centuries). Temperatures used to consistently
remain below freezing during the entire
course of our winter season, but now they
tend to fluctuate widely each winter month
— oscillating above and below freezing.
The result is that our snow cover does not
stay on the ground throughout the winter
anymore. Instead, it melts away during the
warmer temperature shifts, exposing the
ground more directly to the effects of the
freezing periods.
This lack of constant winter snow cover
threatens Minnesota’s agricultural areas
because the snow normally acts as a security
blanket for the soil beneath when temperatures
dip below freezing. When the snow is absent
and the temperatures are low, the exposed
soil becomes much more susceptible to damage.
The continued trend of soil damaging winter
conditions is degrading the quality of Minnesota’s
farm land. This is further exacerbated by
the emergence of drought conditions during
the growing season here in the last couple
of years.
Altogether, the changes to Minnesota’s
climate and the associated loss of our winter
snow presents a dangerous problem for the
agriculture industry. It is vital for all
our societies and policy makers to act to
reduce the human-made sources of environmental
warming as soon as possible, and promote
cleaner energy alternatives. This is important
in order to minimize the negative impact
warmer temperatures are having on the food
growing regions that we all depend on.
