I spent International Daughter Day or whatever it is called taking my daughter to Ely so she could revisit her grandparents’ old stomping grounds. Of course, we had to visit my cousins the Pengals at the Basswood Trading Company where Ruthie, Carol and I laughed about their Forest Hotel Bear Wrestling t-shirt. I thought that was real when I first saw it and even though it turned out to be their invention, I had to have one and now where it proudly in Dooloot.
We also remembered the big fire in the winter of 1967 that burned down the Forest Hotel. The place looked like an ice palace in the aftermath thanks to cold temperatures and the hard work of the Ely Fire Department. This coming autumn and winter probably won’t be anywhere near that cold thanks to Super El Nino. The shift to warmer than normal conditions is already underway.
I’m kind of sad to hear the Babbitt Rink won’t be open for skaters this year. I never got to skate there but did my ice time on the Lincoln Rink over in Ely. My resourceful Babbitt mother didn’t have money for skates so she found some rummage sale figure skates that fit me and shoe polished them black and brown to look like hockey skates. Nobody was ever any the wiser.
The move to close the rink may be moot anyway since Super El Nino may just wreck our upcoming winter. Many sources suggest this winter will be warm with not much snow. The shift to warmer than normal conditions is already underway.
October will have its ups and downs as far as temperature goes. The month will start down but then go up. It should finally average out one degree more than normal. Precip will unfortunately stay low all month long. The month will end with another one inch total below normal.
October 1st to 6th should be cool and showery. The 7th to 17th should be cool so don’t be too surprised if a few flurries fly. The 18th to 27th will turn sunny and warm. The 28th to 31st will be mild and rainy.
They called the Super El Nino year of 1877 “the year without a winter.” With fuel oil prices at $6.50 a gallon, maybe a little warmth would lower our heating bills and reduce our carbon footprints. But that would hurt winter tourism so as always, the weather is a double edged sword as the old cliche goes.
