In praise of the cold

There’s something to be said for normal.

The National Weather Service is reporting today that 2012 — if you can recall that far back — was the second-warmest year on record.

That’s generally considered a bad thing, so take heart in the frigid temperatures of the last few days.

And take heart in this image from the Mille Lacs Lake Webcam website.

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That there is a whole lot of normal.

It wasn’t always thus.

The satellite from this date in the second-warmest year on record looked like this:

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Some resorts on the giant lake had to close their area to fishing because there was so much open water.

The latest satellite photo was Sunday.

mille_lacs_2013_jan_1.jpg

Situation: Normal.