I. Falls edged by Fargo for 'Toughest Weather City'

The Weather Channel’s website read, “In one of the closest match ups of the entire tournament, the defending champ from our 2011 Toughest Weather City Tournament, Fargo, edged past the nation’s icebox, International Falls, to win the Midwest regional championship.”

The site continued that Fargo advances to the “Final Four,” where it will take on the south regional champion, Lubbock, Texas, in the semifinal round. Vote by visiting www.weather.com.

When The Journal posted the link to the contest on Facebook, support for each city was divided. Jesse Walker posted that he thought Fargo’s larger population would boost votes, but that the “Falls is definitely colder.”

Several others also encouraged their family and friends to vote for International Falls.

However, Nancy Blomquist posted about the contest, “It is the ‘toughest weather city,’ not the coldest. Fargo has dealt with blizzards and floods and wind chills all at the same time, and I had family and friends evacuating two years in a row. Winter in Fargo just plain sucks.”

Jeremy Gorden agreed.

“Being from I. Falls and now living here in Fargo, Fargo is way more brutal,” he posted on the contest’s website. “I. Falls has no wind, and they get the same amount of snow. I hate to go against my hometown, but the truth is the truth.”

The Weather Channel advised voters to consider cold, heat, humidity, rain, snow, wind, fog, severe thunderstorms, tornadoes and hurricane risk when selecting their pick for the toughest city.

International Falls was one of 64 cities nationwide selected to vie for the title.

Cities were divided into four regions and matched up against each other at random in a series of elimination rounds — International Falls was included in the Midwest region.

March summary

for Borderland

Regardless of the contest, meteorologists can’t deny 2013 has been a tough weather year so far in Borderland.

When referring to International Falls and the rest of Minnesota cities, KSTP.com meteorologist Patrick Hammer said, “There is no real warm-up through March.”

There were days in March that felt more like January, especially in comparison to March 2012 that set a record-high temperature of 79 degrees on March 18. Fast forward to this year, the same date saw a high of 28 degrees and a low of 14 degrees. Quite a whiplash between the two, especially for those hoping to have a repeat of last year’s heat wave.

According to the National Weather Service of Duluth website, March in Borderland was colder and wetter than normal with the average temperature of 16 degrees for the month – 7.6 degrees colder than normal, making this the 14th coldest March in station history.

The highest thermometer reading reached 50 degrees on March 29 and the coldest was 28 degrees below zero on March17. No daily records temperature were set during the month.

A total of 14.7 inches of snow fell during the month, making it the 11th snowiest March in the Duluth’s station history. March 5 set a daily snowfall record with 3 inches of the white stuff blanketing the ground in a 24-hour period.

According to the site, the outlook for April includes normal highs starting in the lower 40s and warming up to the upper 50s toward the end of the month. Normal lows are expected to be in the low 20s warming up to the lower 30s later on. The site says cooler than normal temperatures are predicted for the month.

I. Falls isn’t out of the clear for snow just yet. Normal snowfall for April is 6.4 inches. Spring may have officially made its arrival two weeks ago, but stepping and looking outside suggests Borderland isn’t free of winter just yet.