By tomorrow morning, the Twin Cities will be slammed with the coldest weather since 1996. Where I live — in Chanhassen, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis — wind chill values will be as low as -53°F. I’ll be holed up inside for today and tomorrow. I already had to see a doctor last week about possible frostbite on my fingers (I was talking on my cellphone outside without gloves while walking between classes at the University of Minnesota — lesson learned!). I’m not taking any chances this time.
Speaking of the University of Minnesota, my journalism professor informed our class that the University had only closed once in the last 40 years due to cold weather, and that was in 1996. I was, therefore, overjoyed when I received an email last night from University President Eric Kaler. In the email, he announced that the Twin Cities campus cancelled classes after noon today and all day tomorrow. (Note: While writing this post, I received another email from President Kaler saying the Twin Cities campus will close after 5 p.m. today through Wednesday [tomorrow] and that classes will resume after noon on Thursday. Even better!)
I thought I needed to document this somewhat historic weather with my camera, but I didn’t want to venture too far outside. So I took this photo of my front yard around 3 p.m. today, when the wind chill was -41°F.
