City of Lakes Loppet to have a shortened course due to lack of snow
The City of Lakes Loppet Winter Festival at Theodore Wirth Park will have a shorter course again this year due to a lack of snow.
The cross-country ski race, held Feb. 1 and 2, will be using a shortened course for the second straight year.
The races will change "from a point-to-point course to a lap course on the Theodore Wirth Park snow making trails," Devin Sundquist, Loppet Foundation Marketing and Communications Director, tells Bring Me The News.
Minneapolis has averaged 12.1 inches of snow in January from 1981 through 2010. In 2025, the city has recorded just 1.7 inches, per the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
The race will have two loops this year, with marathons and two skijor races taking place on a 5.3-kilometer loop. Puolis and three other races will take a 4.5-kilometer loop. Both of which will be coated in artificial snow, which the organization began producing in November, per the Star Tribune.
The organization's Luminary Loppet, a candlelit skiing and snowshoeing event held in the evening, will still be held on Feb. 8 at Lake of the Isles.
BMTN Note: Weather events in isolation can't always be pinned on climate change, but the broader trend of increasingly severe weather and record-breaking extremes seen in Minnesota and across the globe can be attributed directly to the rapidly warming climate caused by human activity. The IPCC has warned that Earth is "firmly on track toward an unlivable world," and says greenhouse gas emissions must be halved by 2030 in order to limit warming to 1.5C, which would prevent the most catastrophic effects on humankind. You can read more here.
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