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.

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National Weather Service

It's cold today -- but you probably already knew that.

​Here's some news for those of you who have well-insulated abodes and/or haven't gone outside yet this morning: It's winter in Minnesota, and it can get freakin' cold.

You might have forgotten about this season while we were being pleasantly surprised with an extremely mild December and 50-degree temps as late as January 10, but today's freeze-your-face-off coldness brings that familiar bone chill that Minnesotans expect this time of year.

Don't fret, though, those of you willing to sacrifice ice fishing and snowmobiling for comfortable walks outside, because it appears that this cold snap isn't for long.

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National Weather Service

It barely qualifies as news these days, but Thursday's high should be in the mid-40s.

​Remember all that doom and gloom we heard just a month ago about how terrible this winter was going to be?

Hogwash. The day after Christmas, Minneapolis' Chain of Lakes was rife with runners, walkers, and bikers during a record-setting 52-degree day that capped off a glorious holiday weekend, and since then, with a couple short interludes, temps have pleasantly ranged between the 20s and 40s.

And there's more bad news for all you cold-loving masochists out there -- just in time for this weekend, temps are supposed to again hit March-like highs in the mid-40s.

Zwan once wrote a catchy rock n' roll tune about an endless summer. Perhaps it's time for a Minnesotan to write one about our endless fall.

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Matt Grommes

This Christmas is the worst.

​Still dreaming of a white Christmas? A crisp sleigh ride over the river and through the woods to grandma's?

Well, according to the weather experts at the Department of Natural Resources, we can all forget it.

"Basically, it would take a Christmas miracle to get an inch of snow on the ground," says climatologist Peter Boulay.

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That's the spirit.

​Things are about to get pretty terrible around here.

A confluence of global weather patterns has perfectly aligned to make this winter a living hell by way of abnormally frigid temperatures, according to an updated forecast from Accuweather.

And that's abnormal even by Minnesota standards.

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Alex E. Priomos

A crash course in winter driving.

​There were 442 car crashes throughout the state during that light snowfall on Saturday, according to numbers put out by the Minnesota State Patrol.

Apparently, everyone who was driving saw the flakes falling, covered their eyes to pretend it wasn't happening, and ended up in a ditch. Or else we all just really needed a -- ehrm -- crash course in winter driving.

"These two- or three-inch snowfalls cause significant problems because they're not enough to stop people from traveling," explains Lt. Eric Roeske.

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Say it ain't snow.

​Hey there, Minnesota. We have something to tell you. You might want to sit down for this.

The National Weather Service in Chanhassen is predicting the first snow of winter 2011-12.

There, there -- we all knew this day had to come.

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Remember how much fun we had last year?

​It's practically summer outside today and the temperature is threatening to break the 132-year-old record high of 87 degrees.

So what better time to let everyone know that this winter is going to completely suck?

This morning, the website AccuWeather released its winter forecast predictions, which basically confirm all of our angst-y fall fears.

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Goodbye, snow emergency!

​Since December 17, we've been slogging through snow and ice, trying to dash home early enough to find an overnight home for our vehicles on our parking-restricted Minneapolis streets.

But today, we've just gotten the best sign of spring ever: Parking restrictions are officially over.

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Watch out for those squad cars!

​ Eight Minnesota State Troopers have been struck in winter-related accidents in the past three days because Minnesota drivers just aren't paying attention.

The recent crashes bring the total number of troopers hit to 31 this winter. Last year at this time, 13 troopers had been hit. There were two crashes Sunday, four on Monday, and two more yesterday.

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