Dry heat in Minnesota?
Saturday, July 15th, 2006I never thought we’d actually have dry heat here at the 45th parallel, in the land of 10000 lakes, but I guess that’s a side effect of global warming shifting Iowa’s weather up here. Now, when I’ve talked to somebody from Florida or Texas, they’ve actually asked when it stops snowing here. I usually give them a good ride on the B.S. highway with “it stops snowing for a couple weeks in July so we get a little bit of green grass”, to which they give me a bewildered but believing look.
Despite our frigid February weather (usually gets down to below 0 F), the unbearable cold only lasts for about 4 weeks a year. Yes, it’s below freezing on most days during the rest of the winter, but you get used to it. By the time March rolls around and we have our first day in the 40s, lots of people are outside without jackets or hats.
Summer can sometimes be equally miserable. The last few summers have been very hot….lots of 90 degree days (it’s 95 today). Luckily, the previous ones were rainy too. Not this one :(.
Dry heat is interesting. I went out for two 10+ mile (16 km) mountain bike rides in 90-degree weather, and it felt like the low 80s because it was so dry. Now, don’t get me wrong. It was hot. It just wasn’t humid as well, so my lungs still worked enough to keep up a pace ~10 mph on the trails.
I hope the dry heat is here to stay, but I hope it doesn’t bring droughts with it. That doesn’t really make much sense though.