Despite cold snap, many ready to celebrate the season at St. Paul's Winter Carnival
ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It'll be plenty cold in St. Paul tomorrow for the Winter Carnival, just in time, in fact.
"It's going to be cold. It's going to get cold. So we're glad we are out here today while we can be," said a group of visitors.
The cold is part of what makes the Winter Carnival the Winter Carnival. After all, it's in January. So when visitors come here, they're prepared.
"Got snow pants on, the whole galore," said Alicia Nguyen while visiting with her three children. "Hot cocoa, can't forget the hot cocoa. Layered up."
But that doesn't make working with ice any easier.
"I think when I left it was 55 and sunny. So minus-5 is a little bit different, but it's alright," said ice sculptor Austin Greenleaf.
Greenleaf lives in Las Vegas but travels to St. Paul every year to do an ice sculpture. This year, he and his friend Kevin Petroske are creating the Egyptian god Anubis.
"You just have to keep moving. You stand around too long you'll start getting cold. We are used to it. There is plenty to do," Petroske said.
The two sculptors work with 10 blocks of ice weighing about 3,000 pounds. They'll have ice and water flying everywhere so they have their own strategies for keeping warm. So far this year, the weather has been great. But for this team, the key is keeping their hands in good shape.
"If you can keep your hands dry, that's the most important part because we have water and slush going all over the place. So, if your hands get wet then you are kind of done," Greenleaf said.
That's even more important when temperatures dip below zero overnight. The two sculptors said they've sculpted in colder conditions, but no matter how frigid it gets, they wouldn't miss the Winter Carnival.
"It's just a great group of people. You break a chisel and someone hands you another one," Petroske said.
Centerpoint Energy has a number of tips for getting through a cold snap. Make sure you're changing or cleaning your furnace filter frequently, and keep your curtains and blinds open during the day to allow more sunlight in, to help warm your house.