Home » Spring Snowstorm of 1984!

Reprint

I don't know about the rest of you but I'm glad to see the winter of 2007-2008 go away.  The months of November, December and half of January were tolerable but the last two and a half months have gotten long.  Temperatures in North Dakota, USA during this last stretch of winter got a little chilly.  It started around Janauary 17th.  There were a few days in the second half of the month where we had a minus 40 degrees below wind chill! 

It can change so quickly up here in the upper midwest of the USA.  I'm writing this on Sunday April 6th, 2008.  Yesterday, it looked like spring had finally come.  It was about 52 degrees Fahrenheit in the afternoon.  The sun was shining and there was little wind.  I went out for a pizza about 9pm last night.  I left the pizza place with a friend about 10pm.  At that time the wind was starting to pick up and snowflakes were starting to fall.  It was about 32 degrees Fahrenheit. 

When I woke up this morning it had snowed in the night and there was about 2 inches of fresh stuff on the ground.  It continued to snow all day Sunday until about 4pm.  I didn't measure it but we must have gotten about 6 inches all together.  I like to think spring is here when The Masters golf tournament is held every April in Augusta, Georgia.  It's supposed to warm up again this week and melt our latest snowfall.  However, it snowed enough so that we might still have some on the ground when the players tee off on this coming Thursday!  

This winter has just seemed to drag on!  I use an electric scooter 95% of the time now and I could be seen scooting downtown all winter.  I've done this for the past three years.  This winter I think I only missed two days of not going downtown to either one of our gas stations, the grocery store or the drugstore.  The only place on my body that gets cold is my face.  I have a Bomber hat for my bald head and for the rest of me I simply wear jeans, shirt, sweatshirt and my winter coat.  It can be chilly on my face but I don't stay outside too long!  I'm only three blocks from my grocery store which is the majority of my trips in each day.  I've stopped driving my van when it's really bad out, too.  Since I don't walk so good I figure it's not wise to be driving on the interstate highway.  If my van would breakdown or if I would slide into the ditch I might be sitting there for awhile. 

Now you may ask why do I live in such a state with such cold temperatures?  First, I like to think our weather makes us a heartier bunch of people!  Second, I've lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin or North Dakota my whole life.  I don't know anything different.  I'm used to this!  Third, we have cold in the winter but it also doesn't get too terribly warm in the summers.  As a multiplictic sclerictic (person with MS) and heat sensitive this is the only place I want to be except for maybe Canada or Alaska! lol  Lastly, we have the occasional blizzard or tornado but we don't have droughts, hurricanes, typhoons or any of that kind of stuff.

 

The week of March 17th of 2008 we had warmer temperatures (30's) but on the 19th and 20th we got a spring snowstorm which left about 10 inches of new snow on the ground.  The only good thing about that is a person knows it's going to melt very quickly and as of this writing most of its gone!  We seem to be getting a lot of snow in March this year but it will never match the snowstorm of April 14th, 1984 for me.  On that particular day it was warm and we were enjoying being outside after a rough winter.  My roommate at the time and I decided to have a cookout on our little grill.  We had burgers, chips and beer.  

After we ate we decided to go to a suburb of Minneapolis which was only 30 minutes away.  Once there we partied hard, closed down the bar we'd  been in and about 1am we headed for home.  As we were driving home it started to snow.  Now snowstorms in mid April can happen in Minnesota but it's rather unusual.  By the time we got back to our little town the snow was beginning to accumulate and we knew we were in for some more winter.  We didn't know how much we'd get and we didn't really care.  Both of us wanted to go to bed.  The last thing we said to each other was, "I think we're in for a good one". 

As we went to bed we could still see our little grill out on the yard.  But when we woke up at  9am the next morning we couldn't see our little grill anymore.  It was completely covered with snow along with just about everything else!  During the night it had snowed 14 inches and everything was covered with white stuff.  Now in mid April it's warming up nicely in the upper midwest of the USA.  We knew that any snow would soon be replaced with slush and water in a day or two but for me it will go down as one of the weirdest snowstorms I've ever encountered!  It came on so quickly and there was a lot of snow very fast!  It's the kind of storm that makes a person respect the weather and what it can do and also do very quickly!

Jon Wegner is a 50 year old resident of a small town close to Fargo, ND, USA .  He's lived there for four years after being a lifelong Minnesotan.  Jon's had multiple sclerosis symptoms for over 25 years.  In 2007 his MS took the majority of his walking.  He now rides his electric scooter 95% of the time to get around and he has other MS problems.  Jon's website and e-book can be found at http://www.mymsbookandnewsletter.com   You can also sign up for his FREE newsletter there.