Extreme Temperature Diary- Sunday January 28, 2024/ Main Topic: Warm Winter Weather Affecting Minnesota Recreational Events

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The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track global extreme or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉

Main Topic: Warm Winter Weather Affecting Minnesota Recreational Events

Dear Diary. In the future our climate will probably get so warm that the cancelation of winter sports and recreational events will be considered very minor issues compared with all the major disruptions and havoc brought about by the climate crisis. Nonetheless, during 2024 northern cities and states that depend on outdoor activities for tourism are starting to cry foul when it comes to the interruption of skating, skying, ice fishing, and hockey events. The Twin Cities area in Minnesota holds an annual ice sculpting event that is being affected, which draws in tourists and their dollars from many parts of the world. I’m sure that similar events across the planet are just starting to be affected by fickle weather from winters that are seeing warming trends worldwide.

Here are a few details on how mild winter weather, that I alluded to as “whiplash warmth” yesterday, is affecting traditional money-making outdoor activities across Minnesota from MPRnews:

Pond hockey championships cancelled as warm weather wreaks havoc on Minnesota winter events | MPR News

Pond hockey championships cancelled as warm weather wreaks havoc on Minnesota winter events

MPR News Staff

January 26, 2024

A player from the Minneapolis-based team Wolf Pack fights for the puck with a player from Flavor Savers during the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships at Lake Nokomis on Saturday.

The second weekend of the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships is canceled. The organization announced the cancellation Thursday on Facebook, saying the warmer weather makes the ice on Lake Nokomis unplayable.

“Three weeks ago, there was open water on Lake Nokomis. With an extreme cold spell, sufficient ice grew and Opening Weekend was held with some of the best ice we’ve ever had. Unfortunately, that cold weather moved on,” the announcement says.

Golden Weekend teams will receive a guaranteed team spot for the 2025 USPHC, event staff said.

U.S. Pond Hockey Championships

January 25 at 1:04 PM  · 

Pond Hockey Players & Fans,

This winter season has been like no other we can remember. Three weeks ago, there was open water on Lake Nokomis. With an extreme cold spell, sufficient ice grew and Opening Weekend was held with some of the best ice we’ve ever had. Unfortunately, that cold weather moved on and a heat wave took it’s place. As such, we have made the difficult decision to cancel the upcoming U.S. Pond Hockey Championships Golden Weekend Jan 26-28.

We’re as gutted about this as all of you are. This event sometimes teeters between a couple of degrees, and we’ve had good luck, and we’ve had bad luck. Last weekend was good luck, this weekend is bad luck. We were hoping that the temps would get at least a few degrees lower to freeze overnight. That doesn’t appear to be the case. We hoped that humidity would be lower to help evaporate the water, it’s at 95%. We hoped the daytime temps would stay in the mid or low 30s. They are in their upper 30s. And forecasts this week have gone from potentially good, to not good, with each passing day.

We know so many of you have traveled and spent money to get here. Nokomis is fully prepared, and our operations teams have gotten everything together for the event to happen, even over the past month of uncertainty. Unfortunately, the one thing we can’t control has rendered the surface ice unplayable as of today.

*** We are going to have the grounds and main tent open this evening (Thursday, Jan 25, 4-9pm) to allow players and friends to come down, share in our USPHC PITY PARTY, pick up player bags, and spend some time with us as they would like at Nokomis. ***

USPHC Staff

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The warm weather is also causing other cancellations. Golden Valley announced its outdoor ice rinks were closed for the season Thursday night and the city is canceling its Winterfest planned for this weekend.

St. Paul Winter Carnival

The 138th St. Paul Winter Carnival kicked off Thursday with more than 50 events planned for its 10-day run. Organizers say despite forecasts for above-freezing temperatures, all St. Paul Winter Carnival events will continue as scheduled.

The carnival’s president, Lisa Jacobson, said she sees the warm weather as a positive.

“I think more people will come, so we’re excited about that. But we’re not planning to cancel anything just because we’re experiencing springlike weather,” she said. “We feel like it’s a win.”

Jacobson says 18 professional snow-carving teams are competing at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds this weekend, and ice sculptures will soon be on display in Rice Park.

“Our ice carvers will work in the night, which is when it’s coldest,” Jacobson said. “And the ice carvings will last as long as they last.”

The ice and snow designs will be available for viewing through Feb. 4 — or until they melt.

Ice fishing tournaments go virtual

Unsafe ice conditions are causing a huge ice fishing tournament in north-central Minnesota to go semi-virtual.

The Brainerd Jaycees Ice Fishing Extravaganza usually draws about 10,000 anglers to Gull Lake every year. But this year’s unseasonably warm weather has created unsafe ice conditions on many Minnesota lakes.

Contest organizers say the event will be held on Feb. 3, but with a hybrid model. Participants can fish on multiple lakes in the Brainerd area and upload a photo of their catch using an online app called Fish Donkey.

In a news release, organizers said it’s crucial to prioritize safety and flexibility in light of the unprecedented ice conditions. The ice fishing contest used a similar virtual model in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

MPR News staff Lisa Ryan, Mathew Holding Eagle III, Kirsti Marohn and Anna Haecherl contributed to this report.

Here are more “ET’s” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:

Here is More Climate News from Sunday:

(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)

More from the Weather Department:

Today’s News on Sustainable Energy, Traditional Polluting Energy from Fossil Fuel, and the Green Revolution:

More on the Environment and Nature:

More on Other Science and the Beauty of Earth and this Universe:

If you like these posts and my work on record temperature ratios, please contribute via my PayPal widget on this site. Thanks in advance for any support. 

Guy Walton… “The Climate Guy”

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