“Is it the GOOD kind of snow?” That is the first question Minot kids in-the-know may ask themselves when the white stuff starts coming down. Seasoned MAFB kids will know that the snowfall up here in the great, white North tends to be the powdery and dry variety – lighter and easier to shovel, certainly, but not great for snowman making, fort building and other outdoor pursuits.

The reason for the powdery snow has to do with Minot’s ultra frigid winter temperatures which ensure snowflakes stay smaller, hold their shape and stick less to surfaces or, as many a disappointed child has discovered, each other. Warmer surface temperatures lead to snowflakes that hold more moisture – two to three times more per inch than dry snow. When surface temperatures are just above freezing these snowflakes melt ever so slightly as they land and become much stickier. That is what makes the early season or late Spring snow storms worth paying attention to. The conditions tend to be perfect for that heavier, wetter snow!

On 16 November, Team Minot was hit with its first true snowfall of the season. Snow that was most definitely the “good kind.” The following day, everyone who went outside was in for a treat: real, no-kidding snowman building snow. Enough to make some truly large and, in some cases, outside-the-box snow creations.

The day following the first snow, was sunny and temperatures rose from just around freezing back into the more comfortable high thirties to low forties. These perfect snow day conditions lured much of Team Minot out to build and play in the freshly fallen snow. There was enough of it to achieve some truly epic creations. The evidence? Snowmen. Snowmen everywhere. Also, snow cats, snow ducks, and one clutch of tiny, adorable snow-ducklings (no relation to the duck.) It was impossible to drive through base housing without coming across these creations – large and small, or stumbling on at least one snowball fight in progress. Even those who lived in town, which saw noticeably less snowfall than the base, were getting in on the action.

There is a saying in the Midwest that if you don’t like the weather, wait five minutes. By Tuesday evening another storm had already started to hurtle its way across North Dakota. This one came with blizzard winds that not only dropped several more inches of snow, but rearranged or destroyed many of those original monuments. Luckily, most people took pictures, in many cases posing right alongside their icy creations. Many were shared on the Northern Sentry’s Facebook page, and they highlight the sense of fun and creativity that people bring to their time in Minot. Will the conditions be right for more snowmen? This reporter is hoping the answer will be ‘yes’.

If the forecasted La Nina, which brings colder temperatures and above average amounts of precipitation to the Northern tier, makes its debut, there will certainly be more opportunities to get out and enjoy some winter weather: fresh air, snow (hopefully, the GOOD kind,) and each other.

A very old adage is to ‘make hay while the sun shines.’ This is the idea that a farmer needed to take advantage of the good weather to accomplish as much of their work as possible because they can’t really predict what the next day will bring weather-wise. A broader application is that there is wisdom in taking advantage of a good situation while it presents itself. In the case of last week’s storm, Team Minot invoked this principle in a light-hearted sense and made snowmen.