Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — Veteran weather watchers on the Gogebic Range were scratching their heads to remember an ice storm quite like the one that arrived Wednesday and blanketed the Gogebic Range for two days.
The storm caused numerous Xcel Energy power outages that lingered through Saturday in the Saxon-Gurney area as thousands of trees and branches came down under the weight of the ice.
All of that ice came crashing to the ground when the temperature hit the 40s on Friday. The sound of the melting ice was awesome.
The ice storm extended all the way to the Porcupine Mountain State Park, where a massive clean-up effort was needed to open up blocked trails.
The Ironwood city limits weren’t hit as badly as some other areas of the Gogebic Range, although there were two brief road closures when trees fell across Alfred Wright Boulevard, near Lime Street, and near Easy Street, in the industrial park.
The last day of April ended with .80 inch of rainfall for the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. Monday in Ironwood. For National Weather Service purposes, that rainfall will be recorded for May 1.
After a slow start, April in Ironwood produced 4.67 inches of precipitation, which is nearly double the 119-year average of 2.64 inches. The record was 7.91 inches in April of 1960, according to the NWS.
The snow that arrived near the end of the month totaled 5.6 inches, under the long-term average of 11.14 inches. The record April snowfall was 44.9 inches that fell in 2013 in the winter that wouldn’t end.
The average temperature for the month of 40.3 degrees was about the only statistic that was near normal, as the long-term average is 39.3 degrees.
There was a 70 to 90 percent chance of more snow through this morning for the Ironwood area as monsoon season continued.
