This photo of the Minnesota River Valley shows climate change in two ways that impacts the lives of all those who live in the Mankato area. First, the melting of the glaciers from the last ice age caused the Minnesota River Valley to be very deep, especially at the confluence with the Blue Earth River in southern Minnesota. In the short term, you can see many sandbars at this time due to a warmer winter with less snow, and this is usually very unheard of until June. Global warming, perhaps?