There is a very good reason I left MN behind me when I retired and these threads are reinforcing my decision. In the 40+ years I spent there I remember two winters in particular when living in Finland on the north shore of Lake Superior inland from Silver Bay. One was the snow winter. Only reason you knew you were snowmobiling over your junk cars in the back forty was because you'd see an occasional antenna tip. Then there was the year of the cold. A guy who lived in Isabella MN kept track of temps every day and every night. We had 45 days in a row where day or night temps never got above 0. Those two years stand out and it was before we knew we were in a Polar Vortex.
Kind of sounds like the north is doing it's best to combine those two winters this year into one "to be remembered and talked about" winter. The only snow we got here was gone in two days. All 1 1/2" of it. It has been the coldest winter most of the family down here remembers tho.