December 30th, and it's 40 degrees out and raining.

This isn't the Frozen North any more. This is, I dunno, the Unfrozen North. The weather is more like what we'd expect to see in March than the end of December.

As nice as it is for our heating bills, this unusual weather could cause some problems. Lakes, for example, probably aren't safe to be on right now, but you still see the usual set of diehards setting up their ice fishing houses. I wouldn't be surprised if some plants respond to the warm weather by trying to push up new shoots. They'll be in a bad way if (as is inevitable) we see a deep-freeze cold snap before spring.

Normally at this time of year we're entering the coldest part of winter. Instead, it's been highs above freezing for weeks on end.

(Meanwhile, Denver, hundreds of miles south of us, has gotten several feet of snow. The same storms have been bringing us--you guessed it--rain.)

Is this a sign of global warming? I don't know, but it's surely not what I expected from Minnesota.