Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
A groomer makes its way up the snowy side of Mount Zion on Thursday in Ironwood. The area was blanketed with 17 inches of snow over the past three days, with more snow expected on Sunday and Monday.
IRONWOOD — Although the 17 inches of snow that had fallen in Ironwood from Tuesday to Thursday added depth to a snowy March, the total for the month is not close to setting a record.
Another 4 inches fell at the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Plant for the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. Thursday, bringing the total for March to 31.8 inches, with more than a week remaining until April.
The record snowfall for March in Ironwood over the past 100 years is a whopping 57.2 inches recorded in 2002, according to the National Weather Service office in Marquette. The long-term monthly average through March 22 is 18.8 inches.
The season’s snowfall in Ironwood stood at 158.5 inches up to Thursday morning, and it snowed more after the daily reading was taken at 7 a.m.
The 17-inch snowfall for Ironwood wasn’t the highest total in the Upper Peninsula.
Newberry received 19.2 inches. A park ranger at Tahquamenon Falls State Park said 16 inches fell there in about 48 hours, and 41 inches blanketed the ground.
Ironwood’s on the ground total Thursday was 26 inches.
Bright sunshine on Thursday afternoon brought warmer weather and the thermometer had risen to 24 degrees by 4:30 p.m. The hotspot on the Gogebic Range at that time was 36 at Pine Lake in Iron County.
—Ralph Ansami
