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124 Spring is
coming to the Great Prairies in MN --- Minnesota’s Natural Disasters (written:
040510, posted 040518)
See our Photo Gallery:
Photo Gallery > Minnesota Seasons > Spring (dandelions, violets, crab
apples, lilacs)
Photo Gallery > Raptors & Release (eagles, hawks, falcons, owls,
vultures)
Photo Gallery > US & Minnesota Nature > Wild Animals > Babies (Mallard ducks,
Canada geese)
It looks like in May, spring has finally come to Minnesota. Flowers like
dandelions, violets, crabapples, lilacs etc. are opening.
Many birds such as bald eagles, red-tail hawks, peregrine falcons, Canada geese,
Mallard ducks, and wood ducks, and hare are giving birth to babies (chicks for
birds). But for the last few weeks, it was not as warm as we expected; the
temperature sometimes dropped near 30° F. Minnesotans are saying, “You never
know Minnesota’s weather.” They tell stories when years ago, it snowed on
Memorial Day, the last Monday in May; one guy told recalling the Memorial Day,
“Man, it snowed while we were fishing on Mille Lacs Lake, MN.”
Last night (040509) we had a windy and rough night. We had tornado warnings and
at around 6 p.m., all of a sudden it became really dark, hailed, and rained with
lightning and strong winds. I heard that some areas had funnel clouds which are
a characteristic of tornados. Como Park in St. Paul had big damage to trees due
to the wind storm (70 mph according to today’s St. Paul Pioneer Press), causing
some big trees to uproot.
The U.S. is so big that almost each state has different natural disasters*. For
example, Minnesota is located on the Great Prairies and the major dangers of
nature are tornados and floods, but Minnesota doesn’t have earthquakes,
hurricanes, or wild fires. California has earthquakes and wild fires while
Florida has hurricanes. I heard that if a big earthquake hits California, some
Californians move out of California to states that don’t have earthquakes. On
the other hand, Japan, which is much smaller than the US in terms of the land
area, has less choices for the Japanese to live and avoid the nature dangers.
However, it’s really interesting to know that there are no perfect places like
the Garden of Eden as far as the U.S. is concerned, (i.e. all places have some
natural disasters).
* For the climatic zones in the US: for example see “The Timechart History of
America” Barnes & Noble Books, 2003
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