Climate change in Minnesota

Rising temperatures may interfere with winter recreation, extend the growing season, change the composition of trees in the North Woods, and increase water pollution problems in lakes and rivers.

In June 2014, a flood forced two port facilities in St. Paul to stop operating, and barges waiting to unload had to be temporarily parked in Pigs Eye Lake until the river receded".

For example, a drought in 2012 led the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to restrict navigation on the lower Mississippi River, which affected shipping upstream.

Increasingly severe storms could also cause sewers to overflow into lakes or rivers more often, threatening beach safety and drinking water supplies".

Declining ice cover and increasingly severe storms would harm both types of fish habitat through erosion and flooding".

[1] "Warming could also harm ecosystems by changing the timing of natural processes such as migration, reproduction, and flower blooming.

Along with range shifts, changes in timing can disrupt the intricate web of relationships between animals and their food sources and between plants and pollinators.

[1] "Warmer winters are likely to shorten the season for recreational activities like ice fishing, snowmobiling, skiing, and snowboarding, which could harm the local economies that depend on them.

Nevertheless, annual snowfall has increased in much of the Great Lakes region, which could benefit winter recreation at certain times and locations".

Longer frost-free growing seasons and higher concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide would increase yields of soybeans and wheat during an average year.

[1] "Changing the climate can harm air quality and amplify existing threats to human health.

In some rural parts of Minnesota, ozone levels are high enough to reduce yields of soybeans and winter wheat.