Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — More seasonable temperatures have returned to the Ironwood area as the January thaw has come to an end.
The slippery conditions produced by temperatures near freezing have been replaced by more frigid air, with lows near zero.
There’s more bitter cold temperatures and some sunshine in the forecast. Saturday, with a high of 24 forecast, should be ideal for the snowshoe hike from 1 to 3 p.m. beginning at Schomberg Park in Oma, along U.S. 51.
It was a sunny 13 degrees at noon on Wednesday in Ironwood.
January was much warmer than usual in Ironwood, with an average temperature of 16.8 degrees. That compares to the long-term norm of 11.6 degrees. The high average for the month was 24.2 degrees in 2006.
The 23.3 inches of snow that fell in January was well below the long-term average of 44.2 inches. The Ironwood record was 100.7 inches in January of 1997.
There was 10 inches of snow on the ground at the end of the month at the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Plant’s weather station.
The Climate Prediction Center forecasts normal temperatures and snowfall for Ironwood in February, but greater than normal precipitation amounts over the next three months.
February in the Upper Peninsula often holds the coldest weather of winter, according to the National Weather Service office in Marquette.
Humboldt, in Marquette County, registered a reading of minus-49 degrees on Feb. 10, 1899, the coldest temperature on record in the U.P.
On the other hand, on Feb. 21, 2000, flooding occurred on the Ontonagon River when the temperature for the previous week averaged 40 degrees.
The NWS said February 1998 was the warmest in the U.P. over the past 116 years, fueled by a strong El Nino and a Pacific flow that prevented arctic air from entering the Great Lakes region.
