Minnesota's January goes out like a lamb

A couple of Roseville high schoolers headed to the driving range in the morning. A man strolled shirtless along the Stone Arch Bridge over the lunch hour, while kids at a south Minneapolis elementary school scrambled on the playground in shirtsleeves. Organizers of a great big bar made out of ice on Nicollet Mall fretted as it sweated throughout the afternoon.

It was the last day of January in Minnesota.

High temperature records fell across the Twin Cities and much of southern Minnesota on Wednesday, as warm air pushed the temperature to within melting distance of the warmest day ever seen in January. The Twin Cities hit 55 degrees in the afternoon, obliterating the previous record of 46 degrees. A few spots in southwestern Minnesota hit 60.

"I kinda miss the snow," Cash Frable, a senior at Roseville Area High School, said in the morning, as he and pal William Devries soaked up the sun at the driving range at Francis X. Gross Golf Club in northeast Minneapolis.

"My dad always talks about how he's done it before" — played golf in the middle of winter, that is — "but you never think that there is not going to be any snow out," Devries, sporting a baseball cap and a light jacket, said as he practiced his swing.

The highest temperature ever recorded in the Twin Cities in January was a 58-degree reading on Jan. 25, 1944. Larry Umphrey, director of golf for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board couldn't recall ever opening any of the city's courses in January before.

A sun getting stronger as it reaches higher in the sky and a lack of snow cover are setting the stage for the record-setting warmth. Without snow, the ground can absorb the warmth, helping temperatures to rise, said Jake Beitlich, lead forecaster for the National Weather Service in Chanhassen.

At Windom Community School during recess, a handful of third-graders rushed to the playground clad in T-shirts and shorts. Felix Garcia Grafing stretched his arms out and spun them like helicopter blades as he basked in the sun.

"It feels amazing," Felix said.

Principal Eric Loichle said the higher temperatures have effectively extended recess for his students over the last few weeks. Winter typically demands that kids don snow pants and heavy jackets — the wardrobe changes rob them of precious minutes on the playground.

The mild weather presents its own set of challenges. Students shed jackets the moment they leave the building. More than a dozen sat in a pile on the blacktop Wednesday. That means a big spike in visits to the lost and found, Loichle said. A warmer January also means the playground gets a little sloppier.

"We've traded snow and ice for mud," Loichle said.

Cora Parker and Hazel Wilks said they miss making snowmen during their play breaks. The girls joined five fellow third-graders for an informal poll on whether Windom students prefer Wednesday's warmth and sun over the layer of snow that blankets the city most winters.

"Snow!" all but one of the kids shouted.

Several winter festivals have had to retool offerings to adjust for the lack of snow or postponed in hopes of an arctic turn down the line.

But festivities will continue at the St. Paul Winter Carnival this week, despite the lack of snow and cold. An ice fishing contest runs through Sunday and unseasonable warmth could bode well for Saturday's Vulcan Victory Torchlight Parade and the daily walking and trolley tours.

"It is nice it's warmer for that," said Molly Steinke, a spokeswoman for the "the coolest celebration on Earth," which runs through Sunday.

Along Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis, the Great Northern Ice Bar shrank throughout the day. By 4 p.m., as the winter sun descended, the 100-foot-long bar went from 20 inches wide to about 17. The road was wet with ice melt trickling from the bar, but it remained sturdy, with about 100 people enjoying drinks and chatting around small portable fireplaces.

Artists had carved designs into the ice with chain saws, but most had disappeared by Wednesday afternoon. Organizers placed tarps over the bar before it opened and put dry ice on top.

"It's kind of sad that the ice bar is melting in front of your eyes. It kind of loses the magic," said LeShon Lee, who was snapping photos. He said it felt a bit ominous, a sign of warmer winters to come as the climate changes.

This is supposed to be coldest part of the year, with highs in the low 20s and lows around 10 degrees. But since the brief run of below-zero weather broke on Jan. 22, high temperatures have been running double digits above average, Beitlich said.

As the calendar turns to February, don't expect a change in the weather pattern. There is "high confidence" that the first half of the month will remain warm and dry before returning to conditions more typical for the second month of the year.

"This might be the winter that wasn't," Beitlich said.

Star Tribune staff writer Louis Krauss contributed to this story.