February closes with temperatures remaining above the seasonal average, while the opening days of March are expected to turn colder. Daytime readings during the coming week should reach into the twenties with generally light winds. In other words, what is considered below normal for March will feel milder than much of February. Winter, however, shows no sign of being finished. The weather records indicate that March commonly brings renewed snowfall, and I expect that pattern will hold this year. There is already a hint of a storm in the air, arriving in time for the Minnesota Game and Fish Department’s annual snowshoe trek.

Across much of the country during the past week, winter has asserted itself with severity. Snow and blizzard conditions were reported in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, southwestern Nebraska and northern Illinois. In Utah, heavy snow and related conditions claimed the lives of thirty-six persons at a mining camp, with forty more reported missing. In California, residents have endured nearly two weeks of rain and flooding, and San Francisco newspapers describe the weather there as the fiercest storm in years.

Here at home, the contrast could not be sharper. The losing team in the recent bowling tournament treated the winners to supper at Sjoberg’s, and though I did not take part in the competition, I was kindly included at the table as well.

In these modern days of electricity, generators, and great mining works, the weather still governs us all the same. As Wordsworth wrote, “The world is too much with us; late and soon.” For all our industry, there remains no stopping nature when it turns its hand to wind, snow, and cold.