Views from the Cab

By David Tollefson, Columnist

A few weeks ago I wrote a column called “Hot and Dry to Cold and Dry.”

Fast forward to this week. The dry part is no more.  

On election day, November 8, began a wet period. I was working at the General Election at the Blue Mounds town hall, and about 10 a.m. we began to see raindrops on the windows to the south and east. The rest of the day was pretty much light rain and drizzle.

Wednesday was off-and-on drizzle and rain. My assistant and I were trying to put some machinery under cover for the winter, and finally quit, went in the house for coffee, and did some fixing of three different leaky faucets that had been put off for who knows how long.

As I write this on Thursday, overnight at my farm we had almost 2 inches of rain. So, with the .29 on election day, about one tenth the next day, and now the additional rain, this is great news for everyone. Our subsoil moisture was very low, and with this additional slow-soaker type rainfall, there is minimum runoff   (not the kind to bring lake and slough levels up).

Today’s rain is the most significant since Aug. 18 and 19, when the two-day total was 1.21 inches.

Regarding the 1991 Halloween blizzard, what I recall without digging into the records of 31 years ago, I’m pretty sure we were done with harvest and were doing tillage. My hired man and I were on different tractors doing tillage maybe a quarter mile apart – the snow was so thick we could not see each other.

Other than that, I don’t recall much drama on the highways or hardships with the cattle (I was milking cows at the time).

Emma at the Pope County Historical Society was kind enough to send me photocopies of the Pope County Tribune of Monday, Nov. 4, 1991, and of the Starbuck Times of Wednesday, Nov. 6, 1991.

A picture of the lakeshore of Minnewaska seemingly looking northeast toward Lakeside Ballroom, shows piled-up ice and snow along the shore, but the lake not frozen over yet.

The caption with the picture is titled “Old Man Winter Makes Early Visit.”

“Temperatures hovered a few degrees above this morning (Monday) following an early season winter storm that struck the entire state of Minnesota over the weekend. The snow began to accumulate Thursday evening as area children ventured out in costumes to gather Halloween treats. The snow and strong winds up to 50 miles per hour continued Friday and Saturday.  The severe weather forced schools to close and the postponement and cancellation of many activities over the weekend.  

Compared to other parts of the state, Pope County received only a mild dose of snow with reports ranging up to six inches. The unseasonably cold temperatures caused Lake Minnewaska to partially freeze over by Monday.

The Pope County Highway Department reported that this is the earliest in many years that snowplows have been called out.

Many area residents relate this early storm to the Armistice Day storm in 1940.”

In the Starbuck Times, a picture taken by Ron Lindquist shows a pretty much deserted main street looking north with then First National Bank on the left

The caption under the picture is titled “Mega Storm ‘91’ hits.”

“What is being called one of the worst winter storms to it Minnesota dumped as much as 35 inches of snow and created havoc with most of the state.”

“The most affected area seemed to be the Arrowhead area of the state, including Duluth, with up to 35 inches of the heavy, wet snow during the three-day storm.”

From Weather.gov (National Weather Service) comes this interesting summary:

“The snowstorm that hit parts of the Northland started around Halloween (Oct. 31-Nov. 3) in 1991, was an impressive storm in many respects, and it is still remembered by many people across the region.  In fact, this storm was caused, in part, by the weather patterns that cased the Perfect Storm that struck the East Coast of the United States, and was famously depicted in Sesbastian Junger’s book. Moreover, the Perfect Storm was beginning to wind down in the Northeast on Halloween, around the same time that Minnesota was starting to see heavy snow creeping in. To have two exceptional storms impacting the continental United States at the same time is quite rare.”

From Wikipedia comes a summary of the impact of the storm:

“Most of Minnesota, western Wisconsin and northern Iowa were heavily impacted by the storm. $63+ million in damages was reported from fallen power lines, and $5 million in crop damages were reported in Iowa. Eleven counties in southern Minnesota were declared federal disaster areas, and 52 counties in Iowa were declared disaster areas. At least 100,000 people lost power because of the weight of the ice downing power lines. Twenty-two people died in this storm, twenty in Minnesota and two on the Mississippi River near LaCrosse, WI.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

My brother-in-law Bob lived in the Twin Cities at the time of the blizzard.  He reported that he was taking his young daughter trick-or-treating in his 4-wheel-drive Chevy pickup through snow up to the headlights, and that snow eventually turned to ice on the highways and became a nuisance for much of the rest of the winter.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Please contact David Tollefson with thoughts or comments on this or future columns at: adtollef@hcinet.net