It's the coldest St. Patrick's Day since 1993, but the parade must go on
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Even though this is the coldest St. Patrick's Day since 1993 in the Twin Cities, St. Paul is getting on with a busy weekend of events.
The annual parade in St. Paul is a tradition that started back in 1967. This year the parade is going back to its roots and walking the original route from its first year -- starting at Rice Park, heading down 5th Street and ending at Mears Park.
"It's the best day of the year," said Amy Bitzen of Rush City.
The cold wasn't stopping anyone from coming out here and having a good time today.
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"I got that little bit of Irish in my family, but I love St. Paul I love hanging out with my keep people and irs just kind of another opportunity to celebrate together and forget that we are freezing," Janet Katzenmaier said.
The parade isn't the only fun happening this weekend. Patrick McGovern's, off West 7th Street and Kellogg Boulevard, is expecting 20,000 people to come through their pub Friday.
"It's a lot of fun, but it's really cold," said Sienna McClutchey, who traveled from Iowa for Friday's festivities. "It feels really shaku sometimes, it's hard to breathe, but it's totally worth it."
Rather than dwell on the 2023 parade and how cold it is, instead maybe flashback to 2012, when the high temperature reached a robust 80 degrees -- roughly 100 degrees different from what the "feels like" temperatures are in parts of Minnesota today.
"In 2012, it was 80 degrees," said Cathy Schmidt. "We started shedding layers, we were down to a t-shirt."