This has been a tough winter to be a Vulcan.
As the caped bad guys of the St. Paul Winter Carnival, the Vulcan Krewe has one major responsibility during the January festival: Boot King Boreas and his royal family from a wintry St. Paul so warm weather can return.
With record snow and low temps lingering well into spring, it seems like a job left undone.
But not for long.
A blast of warm air is forecast for the Twin Cities this weekend, melting away the latest in a series of miserable late-season snowstorms.
Good thing, too, because the Vulcans have been taking a beating.
“When you get selected (Vulcanus Rex), you think that it’s an honor, but it turns a little bit when there’s still snow on the ground April 23,” said Paul Knudsen, Vulcanus Rex LXXVI. “You don’t know the razzing I’ve been getting.”
On top of text messages and the comments during runs with his Vulcan Krewe, one person submitted a “Tainted” entry to the Pioneer Press “Sainted and Tainted” column criticizing the poor job the Krewe was doing driving out the “wind, snow and cold of winter.”
“With the start of spring, we are now in the good hands of Mother Nature,” wrote Mark Schroepfer of St. Paul. “She will resolutely clean up the mess of snow left by the inept Vulcanus Rex and his feckless band of Vulcans.”
If that weren’t bad enough, there also were the full-page newspaper ads taken out by Ted Natus, the 2013 King Boreas.
“Oh, yeah. I’ve poked fun at them more than once,” Natus said. “I might again.”
Half flier for Natus’ business, Hamernick’s Decorating, and half taunting boast, the latest advertisement featured Boreas, arms outstretched, scepter in hand, lording over a sheepish-looking Krewe.
“King Boreas Rules! Bring on the Snow!” screams the headline.
“He called me giggling” after that ran, Knudsen said. He’s not bitter, though, because it looks as though the Vulcans are going to fix things this weekend.
“I looked at the weather, and it’s supposed to be in the 60s,” Knudsen said. “I posted that to Facebook.”
Did he take credit for the anticipated turnaround?
“I had to,” he said.
Other than a bit of rain and sleet Wednesday night, the late snowfall of this spring should be melted by temperatures that could reach 70 by Sunday, the National Weather Service says.
“There’s a pretty decent shot that what we saw waking up Tuesday morning, that significant accumulation of snow, that should be it” for the season, said Joe Calderone, a forecaster with the weather service.
Let’s hope so. Since March 1, 31.7 inches of snow has been measured at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, more than 19 inches above normal.
And the 17.9 inches of snow this month means it will be at least the third-snowiest April on record.
For the season, the Twin Cities have seen 67.2 inches of snow, more than 13 inches above average.
“It’s a significant amount of snowfall above and beyond what is normally seen,” Calderone said.
Does he attribute the bounty to King Boreas?
“I’m not going to touch that one,” Calderone said.
John Brewer can be reached at 651-228-2093.
Copyright 2013 Pioneer Press.
