Cold shot

If you live in this part of the world, you can't spend a lot of time freaking out about cold weather. It's inevitable and we get a blast of cold nearly every winter. It usually comes a few weeks later, but what we're dealing with right now is hardly out of the ordinary. We aren't going to get below -20 in this stretch, at least not in the Twin Cities.

It's bitter -- says right here

Will it keep the crowds down in Times Square on New Year's Eve? Maybe. It's usually a lot warmer than -5 there. We'll see how committed they are to the bit.

Meanwhile, the world is coming here in just over a month for the Super Bowl. It's way too early to know how warm it will be then, but it's unlikely to be this cold. It's usually around 20 or so, which isn't that bad. The record low for February 4 in Minnesota is -28. It will be fun to see how much of a freakout we see if the temperatures dip below, say, -10. Of course, I remember it being -32 on February 2, 1996. My son was still an infant and it was just flat nasty that whole winter, so it can get cold in February. It's not the way to bet, but if we get another Arctic blast it could be a lot of fun for our visitors then.