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Bee made her first communion yesterday! The weather was lovely and so was Bee!

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30 more miles to Fargo, ND, that is! Geesh this state of Minnesota is wide! We should hit Fargo by Friday or Saturday. We had a banner month in the thick of marathon training. A couple of 10-20 mile pairs made up over 25% of that mileage. That makes a new monthly high of 229 miles, and a total of 832.5 miles on the year. It was a crazy running month, with snow, ice and rain runs, as well as running in shorts (make that a 20 mile run in 85 degrees for speedracer), running in many states, and slowly but surely running after sunrise (today the sun was up before 6!).

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Nice soggy run this morning… but hey we are getting closer and closer to Spokane. Ok seriously, this is the rainiest/snowiest spring on record. We should not complain though because as Frankie and Bee keep saying, April showers bring May flowers! and, we haven’t had the severe storms seen elsewhere. But weather is fun to talk about.

It is April 27th. Guess how many days during the month of april it has precipitated (rain or snow)?

a. <10
b. 11-15
c. 16-20
d. 21-25
e. 26-27

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From the National Weather Service:

… Winter Weather Advisory remains in effect until noon EDT
today…

* Visibility below one quarter mile at times.

* Rapidly changing conditions.

Hazardous weather…

* at 750 am snow covered much of the advisory area. Heavier snow
was moving through Lansing Kalamazoo and South Haven. Reduced
speeds have been noted on many of the highways. The snow will
taper off from west to east by 10 am.

* Snowfall rates around an inch per hour are possible between
8 am and 10 am.

* Total accumulations 3 to 5 inches by noon.

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Well, April has been a busy month so we forgot to post on our progress last week. So, we will update you for April 6th! We have run 654 miles on the year, which means we are just past Minneapolis, MN!! Got hit with a few spring snow/ice storms, but nothing too bad. Still on the lookout for spring flower! We’re hoping to reach Fargo by May! Only 1357 miles to go!

>With the new snow fall yesterday we were wondering if we might have another record breaking month of snow. After looking up the weather history for lansing, we sure hope we do not come close! (and while the belated birthday and groundhogs day blizzards of february were fun… we are not hoping for a st. patty’s day blizzard as they had in 1973. I guess it could be fun). We threw in a few extra tidbits of info, mainly to remind ourselves that March in mid-michigan can also be warm and sunny!

Lansing weather history (complements of www.crh.noaa.gov)

3/1/1882
March comes in like a lamb with high temperatures in the 60s. Lansing hits 64 degrees, and goes on to reach 66 degrees the next day. This continued the warmth from the previous month, which was the warmest February on record at Lansing.

3/3/1943
Arctic air dominates the first ten days of the month. Record cold temperatures this morning include the 10 below zero in Lansing.

3/4/1912
Subzero cold continues during one of the coldest months of March on record across Lower Michigan. Muskegon sets a record low of 2 below zero on this morning, during a spell of five straight days below zero.

3/5/1976
Thunderstorms move over cold air near the ground to produce one of the worst ice storms in history across Wisconsin and Lower Michigan. From 2 to 5 inches of ice builds up on trees and power lines, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people without power, some for as long as ten days.

3/7/1999
Arctic air and several inches of fresh snow on the ground combine to drop temperatures to a record low of 13 below zero at Lansing.

3/17/1973
A record snowstorm dumps over a foot of snow across southern Lower Michigan. Lansing has a record 16.5 inches.

3/19/1885
Lansing falls to 11 below zero during a string of eight straight days with low temperatures below zero. It is the coldest March on record there.

3/22/1938
Temperatures soar into the 80s during one of the warmest March days in Lower Michigan. Lansing sets a record for the date of 81 degrees.

3/26/1934
A record snowstorm began across southeast Lower Michigan with around a foot of snow falling in Lansing.

3/31/1923
March goes out like a cold lion with record lows in the single numbers and lake effect snow showers.

>Indoors!

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So, we ran another 193 miles in February, allowing us to pass through Chicago, Rockford, IL over the border into Wisconsin and a just a bit north of Madison. This gives us a total of 379 for the year (only 1632 more miles to go!). It’s been a cold and snowy jaunt, and we’re looking forward to some spring time running!

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It’s official. It is the snowiest February in Lansing in the history of time, or at least since they started keeping records. And its not even over! And the previous snowiest february was a leap year. Some one please call old man winter and tell him to start moving on.

Im taking predictions on when we will see the first crocuses (in bloom). As a matter of historical record for our yard:
2010: March 15
2009: March 23
2008: no records kept

>Here are all of the faces that made it into Bee’s project. She made 100 magnets from the pictures. Bee was really creative, deciding early on that animal and pumpkin faces counted, too! Thanks to those of you shared pictures!!