What a winter it has been. For those winter enthusiasts like myself it has been a big disappointment, but to those who aren’t have been happy with the little snow we have had. Trending warmer early this week Sunday into Tuesday.
Tuesday afternoon we will see highs in the mid 40s then as the evening goes on we will see about a 30° maybe 35°swing in temps by late Tuesday night.
After a couple mild days of weather above average temps near the 50s in some places we will see a mid level trough move from the northern Rockies into the Great Lakes Region and with it some cooler air and gusty winds. We then have another trough which will bring us some moisture that will eventually meet up with the other system moving into the Great Lakes. This trough moves up from the Central plains into the upper Mississippi river valley by late Tuesday night. Together these will give us some of that mixed precipitation.
Cooler air to the north of will keep precipitation as snow for the western UP. Warmer air to the southern central, southern, and eastern portions of the UP will initially bring some light rains and mixed precipitation and transitioning into snow for those regions.
Let’s look at some projected snowfall for areas of the UP on Wednesday.
Ironwood area
Houghton areas
Marquette areas
Munising areas
Manistque areas
Newberry areas
Soo areas
Have no worries though if you were getting used to the warming, it will return later in the week, back into the upper 30s and low 40s, melting much of the snow we get on Wednesday
One would think we should see more snow through the month of March but it appears it won’t be much of a snowy March. As waters warm on Lake Superior we really need some very cold Arctic air to drive across the lake to give us any more lake effect from this point onward.
In my time measuring snow and reporting snow totals in the last 13 years I don’t have any data to compare this year to. It would take a lot of research to figure out what year/s could be comparable in history to this winter. We can say however this is one for the record books and it will be one that many will remember and talk about for generations.
One thing with this low snow year will be burn warnings will start early this year and we won’t have to worry about flooding. Rivers I have a feeling will be down quickly by early April, and Lake Superior water levels may drop a few more inches this summer as well. Let’s hope for some good early spring rains to keep the water levels up a little for the spring plant growth.
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