Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
A SMALL lake has formed in the east-bound lane on Cloverland Drive/U.S. 2 near McDonald's in Ironwood after a few days of rain. Ironwood saw 5.52 inches of rain throughout the month of June, and rainy weather continued into early July.
IRONWOOD - The Gogebic Range saw a bit of everything when it came to weather during the month of June, but wet weather dominated much of the forecast throughout the Upper Peninsula.
Ironwood saw 5.52 inches of rain, while Negaunee recorded 5.63 inches, almost double of the monthly normal of 2.84 inches. Watersmeet saw 5.39 inches of rain throughout the month.
According to the National Weather Service in Marquette, the first two days of June featured the most rain, including more than 2 inches of rain falling in some places. Ontonagon had 2.5 inches of rain, and 2.49 inches fell near Chassell.
The cause of the large amounts of rain during June 1-2 was waves of low pressure moving northeast along a slow-moving cold front interacting with a warm and humid air mass. The result was heavy showers and thunderstorms, especially in the western half of the U.P.
Another slow-moving cold front moving northeast created large amounts of rain June 23-24. Negaunee reported 2.01 inches during that time.
Despite the large amounts of rain fall, the only severe thunderstorms in the U.P. took place on June 29, in Gogebic, Iron and Houghton counties. The storms included wind damage and large hail in some places.
According to data collected from the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ironwood, the highest temperature in June was 85 degrees on June 28, and the lowest was 39 degrees on June 8. The greatest 24-hour precipitation in Ironwood was 1.3 inches on June 2.
Ironwood did tie a daily record high minimum temperature in June. On June 1, the minimum temperature was 62, tying a record from 1925.
The average high throughout June in Ironwood was 72.4 degrees, up from the normal average of 71.9. The average low temperature was 52.1 degrees, up from the normal average of 50.7.
The overall average temperature in June for Ironwood was 62.2 degrees, up from the normal average of 61.3.
Other temperature statistics from across the U.P. included Baraga nabbing the highest reported temperature at 92 degrees on June 28, and lowest reported temperature at 28 near Munising on June 14.
The highest average temperature in the U.P. was 64.3 degrees near Ontonagon and the lowest was 55.2 degrees in Jacobsville in Houghton County.
As for July, the NWS climatology report shows temperatures usually peaking during the seventh month, above five degrees higher than in June. Despite temperatures over 100 degrees being rare in the U.P., it is most likely to happen during the month of July.
July 1936 had the hottest temperatures on record throughout the U.P., including Ironwood and Iron Mountain recording 104 and 103 degrees on July 13, 1936.
More recently, in July 2006 and 2011, temperatures were warmer in the U.P., averaging 2 to 5 degrees above the 30-year normal.
Thousand Island Lake in Gogebic County reported a maximum temperature of 100 degrees or more on four days in July 2006, which goes do in the record books as one of the top 10 warmest seventh months in at all reporting sites.
In addition to hot weather in July, cool weather can also take place. Ironwood recorded 31 degrees on July 2, 1907. The cold weather can stem from cool air masses from Canada, bringing frost. July 1992 is the coolest month ever in the U.P., with mean temperatures recorded six to nine degrees below normal, averaging 65-68 degrees.
