We live in a world where we often hear the term fake news thrown around.
Today at work we came across a situation when people threw out lots of facts about how we did something at Willmar Electric. Instead of using it as an example I found a separate true story we can all relate to and will use it as my example to keep from embarrassing any coworkers.
I grew up in Minnesota and was frequently told: “March is the snowiest month of the year.” People love to throw this “fact” around. I even verified this sentiment with 3 Minnesota natives today.
Every March somebody would point out how winter was nearly over, and some wet blanket would announce while you know, “March is the snowiest month of the year.”
If you are a Minnesotan feel free to answer Mr. Wet Blanket with, “If I wanted to be in March I would cheer for the Timberwolves.”
Another classic is how “it always snows at tournament time.” I ‘ll leave this statement alone other than to say if March is so snowing and the tournaments are in March you don’t need a very high level of education to put it all together and deduce it will snow during one of the tournaments. (I now live in Nebraska; I’ll point out
Nebraskans say the same thing and the same level of genius is needed).
Guess what the snowiest month of the year is in Minneapolis?
It’s not March. March is the third snowiest month of the year. My source is the Minnesota Department of Resources (https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/twin_cities/snowfall.html). I first heard this news around the turn of the century from Metrologist Paul Douglas on WCCO-TV and then by Dave Dahl on KSTP radio. I believed them. I’m still nervous you won’t, believe me, so I found a second link (https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/minneapolis/minnesota/united-states/usmn0503).
If you live in Lincoln, like I now do, and you need to see your data, I found this (https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/lincoln/nebraska/united-states/usne0283). It is interesting to note the season totals for Lincoln this year add up to the average Minnesota total.
Which when pointed in a group today prompted my Nebraska based coworker to turn toward our Minnesota coworkers and ask "how can you live there?"
She was told, "it's the woods and the lakes."
Finally!!! A Minnesotan who didn’t try to trick us by saying it’s not that cold. Had he tried that old trick we would have more facts to verify.
Hopefully, we are now all on the same page. January is the snowiest month in Minnesota. I hope this doesn't ruin your day or make you think your grandma was a lair. Feel free to track down your wet blanket friend and tell them to cheer up the end is near.
All this information on winter weather gets me back to my point of fake news. It seems the idea of people saying the same thing over and over again gets the majority of people to accept the information as truth.
As I said above today at Willmar Electric I was involved in an issue where during two different conversations two claims counter to each other were claimed as true. My response was to point out the good news. We have the information available to find out what is happening and react according to the facts.
Isn’t it cool we don’t have to move ahead making decisions-based on contradicting stories. We don’t have to accept under proven statistics as our proof.
Back to the weather, relax Minnesota the worst is over. But also remember on average you should still be getting another 10 inches of snow. Don’t worry you have an extra 60 hours of sunshine to melt all the new snow and the stuff underneath it. If you don’t believe me check the links I attached.
