January might be fleeting, its slate grey curtain slowly lifting to reveal more light, but its recent cold embrace, frozen fingers and icy breath have left many of us bruised and beaten.
With wind chills as frigid as -60 – poking like a thousand needles at exposed skin – stitching and threading blankets of snow and ice across the Northland, many activities and events had to be cancelled.
For the first time this school year, I.S.D. 166 closed for two days, Jan. 28 and 29. And then it was announced that school would also close a third straight day, which is unprecedented for Cook County.
Since Thursday, Jan. 24, three basketball games were cancelled because it was deemed too cold for our team to travel or the other team to travel.
A Wednesday, Jan. 30 reading at the Grand Marais library was cancelled. Activities at Birch Grove Center were called off. Some midweek church gatherings were postponed. A yoga class was cancelled. Start times for some groups were pushed back. And the list went on.
But while events and activities and some jobs were shut down, the cold weather prompted the YMCA, Grand Marais Public Library and the Cook County Senior Center to welcome people if they needed to stay warm.
On Tuesday, January 29, the county offered overnight shelter to anyone who might need it.
Said Valerie Marasco, director of Emergency Management, “Our agencies are ready to assist with providing emergency overnight shelter if needed. During previous outages, emergency shelters have been opened and nobody has checked-in, so it is important to communicate the need.
“We are fortunate to have a very generous community that looks after each other, but in the event anyone needs it and does not have the means to secure a warm place to stay, please let us know.”
Three local hotels, the Aspen Inn, Aspen Lodge and Shoreline all offered discounted rates to those affected by the inclement weather.
The National Weather forecast on Monday, Jan. 28 had this all too true prediction in store, “Accumulating snow and dangerous wind chills… Another round of dangerously cold air temperatures and wind chills continues this morning for northeast Minnesota. The lowest wind chill values will range from 25 below zero to 50 below zero.
“A clipper system will move out of the region this morning. Snowfall amounts for the Northland range from 3 to 6 inches for areas along and south of U.S. Highway 2, and part way up the north shore of Lake Superior.”
As Arctic air settled into the Northland it was predicted to linger through Thursday morning.
Air temperatures away from the lake dipped as low as 40 below zero some places in the county. Some thermometers recorded even lower temps.
Warnings were repeated from a wide variety of news sources that dangerously cold wind chills could cause frostbite on exposed skin in as little as 10 minutes.
Thankfully, while the wind howled through moaning, creaking skeletal trees, there were no children waiting outside for school buses. Instead, they were home, hopefully warm as toast, eagerly working on schoolwork, giddy and restless for school to reopen.
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