Toro, citing lack of Minnesota snow, moves snowblower tests to Michigan [GRAPHIC]

Categories: Winter
flickr snowblower.jpg
The Twin Cities has seen about half as much snow so far this winter as usual.
Minnesota's ridiculously mild, almost snow-less winter has forced Bloomington-based Toro to travel elsewhere to test its snowblowers.

With just a trace of snow accumulation in the Twin Cities area, Toro has given up on testing their equipment near home and instead traveled to Ironwood, Michigan, which is in the Upper Peninsula on Lake Superior's shore and covered with 11 inches of the white stuff.

How unusual is this winter's nonexistent snow cover? According to Climate Stations, by the end of last month about 15 inches of snow had fallen on the Twin Cities. That amounts to roughly half of the average for this time of year. Here's a graphic with the breakdown:
11-12 snowfall.gif
ClimateStations.com
If the next couple months are anything like the mildness we've experienced so far this winter, then we could end up with less than 25 inches of snowfall this winter. How anomalous is that? According to Climate Stations, there have been only three winters since 1958 where the Twin Cities has seen less than 25 inches, and the last time it happened was 25 years ago. Here's a graphic with that info:
historical snowfall.gif
ClimateStations.com
While there isn't any snow to blow this winter, the data suggests that probably won't be the case again next time around -- there haven't been back-to-back winters with less than 25 inches of snow since 1956-57. So it might not be a bad idea to give that now-languishing snow blower a little tune-up next fall.

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