RYAN BAKKEN: As years go, 2013 made for most miserable weather

This may be sacrilege, but I have declared recently departed 2013 as the worst weather year during my 62 years on the planet.

Many of you may instead cite 1997, when eight blizzards, a quick freeze and an even quicker thaw led to some water stampeding north.

The 1997 weather nightmare played out in about four months and had dire consequences. However, the 2013 weather pretty much reeked nonstop, at least by my standards. The year went out with a weather bang as subzero temperatures and hearty winds made it colder than Cruella de Vil.

My prime measuring stick for weather is this: length of golf season. In 2013, golf didn't start until May and was done in early October. A year earlier, it started in early March and didn't end until mid-November, almost four months longer than 2013.

My other measurement is severity of winter. Need I remind you of December? I will anyway.

The temperature never climbed above freezing from Nov. 26 until Dec. 27, and then only briefly, only to return to arctic conditions. Chronic strong winds made wind chills considerably worse.

Maybe not the worst

But, Greg Gust of the National Weather Service said, people have short memories when it comes to weather.

"There have been a number of years where the temperature has dropped below freezing in mid-November and stayed there until the end of February," Gust said, squashing my hyperbole.

However, he agrees that much of 2013 has been harsh. "Winter hit mid-January and went downhill fast," Gust said. "Below-normal temps and above-average precipitation kicked in and continued all the way into May."

When he's a civilian and not a meteorologist, Gust doesn't use golf frequency to measure weather. He uses campfires.

"There are usually days in the fall when I like to have a little outdoor fire, but I only did that once this past fall," he said. "No other day did I feel like sitting outside around a campfire because it was either too darn windy or too darn cold."

However, he was a long ways from agreeing with my assessment of 2013 being the worst in my memory. Summer was pleasant, if not nice, for instance.

Gust maintains that the biggest weather culprit was not January, February or December, but rather the 11-week stretch of March, April and the first half of May, "when the temperature ran 10 degrees below normal."

Gust blames our erratic weather on our location, in the middle of North America: "We're smack-dab in the middle of the continent, far from the moderating effects of the oceans and subject to the fickle arctic and tropic air masses."

Then he turned mean when summarizing last year: "Was 2013 the worst weather year ever? Not by a long shot, unless you're a golfer with a short tee shot and an even shorter memory."

Ouch. That's almost as cold as December.

Reach Bakken at (701) 780-1125; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1125; or send e-mail to rbakken@gfherald.com .