changes we're seeing in Northwest Minnesota

I have lived in Northwest Minnesota for 30 years.  I have read that our climate is second only to Siberia in severity and I can well believe it. When I moved to this area in 1978, it was not uncommon to see temperatures of -39 and "warming up" to -10 degrees in December and January. Winter would often roll in around November 7th and stay until early to late April or later! Snow was common until May 15th. We wouldn't have much but it could get deep- after all it wouldn't melt until late March or early April or later! Some years — remember the flood in 1997? — we would have temperatures like that, and then we would have severe snowstorms. That was the year we had 100 inches of snow and it all melted at once, around April 15th. There was flooding everywhere. 10 000 years ago, northwest MN was the bottom of a vast glacial lake and on springs like that one it seemed like the
lake was recreated.

That was then — this is now. Winters are far milder now. We will get -30 degrees but only for a day or two and not for weeks. The leaves change two weeks later and the trees usually leaf out one to two weeks earlier. We have lost our moose and gained "southern birds" like turkey vultures and red-bellied woodpeckers. The differences with climate
change have been large and dramatic indeed.