Last month, I mentioned how my weight loss doctor, with a mother-in-law from Babbitt, was at my church’s Christmas program, which kept me from sneaking Christmas cookies. Of course, she was there again for Easter a few weeks ago, and again I stayed on the straight and narrow, low-calorie path. Our temperature path for the winter that just wrapped up was anything but straight and narrow.
NOAA reports that March, 2026 was the warmest in America’s recorded history which goes back about 130 years. Our Northland played a small role in that. We were 1.4 degrees warmer than normal which is a hair outside of normal climate variability. Crunching the numbers for our region for the first quarter of 2026 we get two months warmer than normal and two colder than normal. January was -4.8 degrees. February was +4.3 degrees. March was +1.4 degrees and April was -2.3 degrees. That gives us a first quarter average of -0.35 degree which is in the realm of normal climate variability.
The month of May should be pretty close to normal for both temperature and precipitation. May 1-11 should be showery and cool. May 12-14 should go sunny, dry and warm. The 15th to 19th should be mild for temps but stormy in the sky. The 20th to 31st should be on the warm side with more thunderstorms.
Looking ahead, the summer should come up cooler and drier than normal. Heat fans have the best shot at getting something toasty in late June and early July. Hmmm, isn’t that the way we usually roll up here?
