Minnesota weather is part of daily life, and it brings with it many “extremes.” This collection presents some of those…from the floods of the Red River Valley, the blowdown in the BWCA, the Halloween Blizzard, to the devasting tornado in St. Peter. But were a state of many meteorological dimensions, not just tornadoes and blizzards. Below are memories of oppressive drought, the creep of flood waters, nature driven fire, and those glorious 50-degree December day anomalies. While these stories may attempt to explain the why, where, and what of various weather events, what is striking is the undeniable power of the human experience in the face of it all.
February 2, 1996 - MPR’s Leif Enger reports on new cold temperature record in Embarrass…and the MANY unofficial records. The extremely low temperatures are about everything from “bragging rights” to business opportunities.
January 16, 1997 - If you think you have it bad in winter, Greg Rhode has a tale for you. Storms literally buried his home. Rhode says that he lives at the end of a cul-de-sac, on the other side of a wide beet field -- conditions that seem to dump snow right on their house.
February 12, 1997 - Mainstreet Radio's Mark Steil reports that there's a chance deep snows of the 96-97’ winter are only "part one" of a weather disaster. The spring flood potential may lie in a secret hidden within the snow…the water amount it contains.
March 20, 1997 - On this first day of spring, Mainstreet Radio’s Mark Steil presents some stories from the winter of '97…and shares words from winter's past in the works of Laura Ingalls Wilder and O.E. Rolvaag.
April 2, 1997 - MPR’s Bob Potter interviews Donald Schwert, a geologist at North State University, about the dynamics of Red River that make it prone to flooding.
April 10, 1997 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on how Fargo-Moorhead learned they had as little as 36 hours to raise dikes by two feet because the Red River could go higher than earlier predicted. Hundreds of people worked through the night in an effort to beat the clock.
April 18, 1997 - In this edition of his flood diary, Reverend Craig Hanson says he is feeling mixed emotions as flooding continues in the Red River Valley.
April 18, 1997 - MPR’s Laura McCallum reports on a stressful week for residents of Southwest Fargo, where homes in the 500-year floodplain are threatened by rising water. Most of these homes are far from the Red River, and residents never imagined they'd be scrambling to protect their homes from overland flooding.
April 18, 1997 - MPR’s Bob Potter interviews Grand Forks police official Byron Sieber about flooding in the town and a mandatory evacuation order.
April 21, 1997 - MPR’s Dan Gunderson reports on the major impact Red River flooding has had on Grand Forks, North Dakota. The Red River will crest today in Grand Forks at 54 feet - more than double its normal depth. The flood has forced the evacuation of Grand Forks and the city across the river, East Grand Forks, Minnesota. Over the weekend, there was also a big fire in Grand Forks. Fire trucks couldn't get to it, so helicopters dumped buckets of floodwater on the fire.