UP Snow Totals Mar 4th

Snow and rain in forecast for weekend

Above: Agate Beach 3.4.24

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A little snow in some places in the UP, it came quickly as the winds shifted slightly giving us some nice heavy lake effect snow that soon faded once winds shifted again about 30min after it started mid afternoon.

The system I was watching late last week moved further north into Canada which allowed warmer weather to slide into the UP. It just goes to show you as with many systems that move over our area things can change so fast even if forecasts hold for days, the joys of winter weather forecasts.

Above: sunset at Agate Beach with ice balls in the water 3.4.24

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I am not a meteorologist by any means, but I do enjoy learning as much as I can about weather, especially winter weather because it’s very interesting, I find snow magical, fresh, and delightful. That’s a big reason why I measure 6 snowfall stations daily since 2011 and do reports on the snow. We certainly live in a unique place for winter weather here in the Upper Peninsula with our lake effect snow and also seeing system snow, sometimes these mix giving us some memorable snowstorms.

Snow outlook for this weekend.

There is snow in the forecast for late Friday and Saturday, very little, but also rain is in the forecast. The western UP may stay dry. Much of the moisture should stay in southern Iron, Delta, and Marquette counties, and eastward across the UP.

We should see a northern shortwave from the Dakotas moving northeast over our area mid week. This appears to be meeting up with a southern shortwave stream from Texas and Oklahoma which will bring up some moisture north, this should feed the cooler temps as the cold front Friday arrives. Predictions on precipitation we could expect may be in the 0.1-0.15 inch range which could yield 1-1.5 inches of snow across the region Saturday.

Daytime temps will be in the upper 30s to low 40s may give us some light rain Friday afternoon into the early evening hours before temperatures start dropping to around freezing as the sun goes down. An air mass moving in behind the colder air is pretty dry which will keep the precipitation low and snow out of the western UP. NE winds will also keep snow out of the Keweenaw and far western UP as well. Winds will pick up early Saturday morning into the early afternoon, can’t rule out 35mph gusts with 15-20mph sustained winds across the eastern UP.

After this weekend we will start seeing warmer weather again, trending above average for this time of the year. We can’t rule out more snow as we approach the middle of the month, March is usually one of those wacky weather months here in the UP.

UP Snow Totals for March 4th below.