December on track to be one of the warmest on record for the Twin Cities

MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — It's almost crazy to think this time last year, WCCO was issuing NEXT Weather Alerts because of how cold it was — negative 45 with the wind chill. Now, winter events are being delayed or cancelled entirely because it's not cold enough.

Minnesota's weirdly warm winter forced the cancellation of the Minnesota Ice Festival two weeks ahead of its opening day. Organizers of the separate but similar Ice Castles event in Maple Grove say they're still moving forward, despite already being delayed.

"We were fully anticipating with the ice castles being opened here in late December. We're running a few weeks behind," Greg Anzelc with Experience Maple Grove said. "We need 20 degrees or less to really start the build-out process on the ice castles."

State climatologist Pete Boulay says the record-breaking days could add up to a record-breaking month.

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"This December is on track to being the warmest December we've had since we've been keeping records in the Twin Cities," Boulay said.

Boulay says if our warm winter persists, it could cause issues with plants and crops into the spring and beyond.

"The trick is, does it stay cold enough so that things don't break dormancy? That's what we don't want to see happen. We don't want anything to start growing in December, if you can help it," Boulay said. 

The good news is that many won't have to deal with winter conditions on the road for the holidays, and there's plenty of winter activities across Minnesota that don't involve giant ice structures.

As far as the future forecast goes, Boulay is confident colder temperatures will come eventually.