Weekend warmup gives hope to winter weather events

(FOX 9) - Temperatures are supposed to make a pretty big swing to get above freezing this weekend and that means more people will be heading out to some winter events.

“This has been a great weather week for us, actually,” said John Munger, the executive director of the Loppet Foundation.

It couldn’t have worked out better for Loppet: the week began with a fresh coat of snow.

“You know what you always worry about in our world is the snow melting,” he said. “Well, there was no real fear of that this week.”

Now that the three-day event has begun, the temperature is above zero for the first time in 90 hours.

If the weather had stayed where it was earlier in the week, there was a risk of cancellation.

“Minus 14 as a high…I don’t know if the event would have gone on,” Munger said. “We have to worry about our volunteers at some point.”

St. Paul Winter Carnival

Across the river, the St. Paul Winter Carnival preparing for Saturday night’s torchlight parade through downtown.

A group of Vulcan spouses found it warm enough to tour places where they could warm up even more.

In the ten days of events, only a few were affected by the extreme cold. Things warmed up right on cue, however.

Hudson Balloon Rally

Further east yet is the Hudson Balloon Rally. It’s the 30th annual hot air affair that’s set to take flight in Hudson.

Friday morning, before flights lifted off, the temperature hovered right around zero. The warm-up will be great for spectators.

The pilots don’t mind either, but would have been fine either way.

“Ah, some of them might not have flown,” said Mike Sommer, a balloon pilot. “Some might have tried. We flew up here when it was 19 below in 2001.

Either way, when you have events with crowds, the temperatures really have worked out.