Audio Snow day in Duluth (story audio) Photos Duluth and much of northern Minnesota got a snow day Monday. Jeff Fouts Kids enjoy a snow day. View full slideshow (4 images) Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Snow day in Duluth
by Stephanie Hemphill, Minnesota Public Radio
January 26, 2004

Duluth and much of northern Minnesota got a snow day Monday. (MPR Photo/Stephanie Hemphill)

Folks in northeastern Minnesota and northwestern Wisconsin are still digging out from a near-record snowfall, and the snow is still coming down. Accumulation at the Duluth airport was the third highest on record, for a 24-hour period.

Duluth, Minn. — A lot of people here are going about their business with a quiet smile of satisfaction. They're finally getting what feels like normal winter weather.

After five years of wimpy winters - Duluth has had several days of frigid temperatures, and now - lots of snow.

At the downtown hardware store, Stanley Morrow says business is brisk.

"A lot of snow shovels, and brooms - because it's a light snow, they're using brooms also," Morrow says. "Salt for sidewalks. We're getting a lot of lock freezes, and people buying de-icer for the locks."

A lot more people ride the bus on a snow day. That way they can put off digging out the car and avoid the slippery roads.

"I love the snow. It's the cold I haven't cared for lately," says one bus rider. "But this is winter, and everybody talks about how they love Duluth, and the four seasons, so it's about time we got some."

Some people love the snow, even while they're digging out. It probably helps that school was cancelled for the day.

	Jeff Fouts

"It's good for skiing," says Jeff Fouts, as he finishes clearing the sidewalk in front of his house. He's planning to ski at Spirit Mountain later in the day. As to the day off school, he says it's "the best."

Down the street, Matt Quinn and his friends are playing hockey in a driveway. One of their dads cleared it early in the morning.

	Kids enjoy a snow day.

Ashley Birdseye is playing with her friend Rachel. "We're shoveling holes in the yard," she explains, "just for fun."

Apparently there are lots of different ways to enjoy the snow.

At Chester Bowl Park, kids are making the most of their snow day on the sliding and skiing hills. And the manager of the park, Thom Storm, is enjoying it as much as the kids.

	Chester Park ski hill.

"We have something that happens very rarely," Storm says. "We've got over a foot of dry, wonderful, powder snow. School is cancelled. Chester Bowl is usually closed on Monday but we opened the hill today, and we've got lots kids squealing with delight, having a blast."

Chester Bowl Park is in Duluth's snow belt, up the hill and away from the lake. That's a fact of nature, according to Craig Sanders. He's a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Duluth.

"We've got east to northeast winds coming into the terrain along the North Shore," Sanders says, "and when it hits that, the air rises fast and will increase the snowfall amounts there."

By early afternoon, the airport had 22 inches, nearly twice as much snow as downtown.

And Sanders says it won't be as windy as it often gets after a big snowstorm. That's good news for Mark Forseth, the city auditor at Hillsboro, North Dakota, 45 miles north of Fargo. They got almost two feet of snow.

"Even without wind yesterday, I saw people with drifts just about up to the roofs of their house," says Forseth. "If we got wind of any sort it'd turn it into a mess."

Road crews have their hands full as it is. Mark Forseth says it'll be awhile before Hillsboro streets are cleared.

"Hopefully by the end of the day we can have one lane plowed," he says, "but to get things cleaned up completely, we might be looking at another two or three days." The storm is winding down, but some in northern Minnesota are still hoping to match the second highest 24-hour snowfall record.

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