How Awesome is Summer in Minnesota?

Everyone hears “Minnesota” and immediately thinks long, cold and snowy winters. Well that may be, but the summers here can be just phenomenal, and this summer has definitely started out that way.

We moved from Chicago to Thief River Falls about three years ago. OK, there are plenty of other stories about moving from an area with approximately 10 million people to an area with not quite 10,000, but I won’t bore you with another one. I grew up in Chicago and my wife grew up a little south of Minneapolis, so we had a pretty good idea of what winter in the Midwest was like. What I didn’t know, however, was how awesome summer could be.

Red Lake River about 3 miles above the Thief River Falls dam. (Pennington County, MN)

Minnesota is all about being outdoors (all four seasons, actually). But June is the perfect time to start summer with the longest day of the year. According to current sunrise/sunset tables, first light in Thief River Falls on June 21^st was at 4:43 am and last light was at 10:10 pm. However, I know that I was still outside well after 11 pm that night and could still see the trees across the river. We were sitting around a fire, enjoying the peace and quiet of nature and would have stayed outside even longer had the snacks and drinks somehow not run out.

Now, as we enter July, the weather is starting to warm up a little more in Thief River Falls and that only means one thing in Minnesota – MOSQUITOES. Which subsequently means that sitting around a fire until well after dark will become a bit more of a challenge without ample amounts of bug spray.

If you’re interested in seeing a little of our local weather, check out the DigiKey Weather Camera, which is transmitting from the top of our building here in town, or follow the Thief River Falls temperature and humidity readings on the DigiKey Weather Station. The technology associated with creating the Weather Station was developed by our own Applications Engineers. If you check the weather camera at dusk during July, you just might be lucky enough to see one of Minnesota’s own helicopter size mosquitoes. Please note that our camera is powered by solar energy so it does experience periods of inactivity caused by either lack of or excessive sunlight. The time/date of the last feed is shown in the bottom left corner of the frame.

Check back periodically to the TheCircuit for more of my updates on life in rural northwest Minnesota. Guaranteed, in about six months, I’ll be pulling this blog out to reminisce about how awesome summer is in Minnesota.