Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Matt King of Hurley shovels snow off the Iron Belle Trail bridge over the Montreal River Wednesday afternoon. He lives nearby and has seen an uptick in traffic on the trail recently as the snow has melted off the trail's asphalt service, but there was still snow on the wooden and shaded surface of the bridge.
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood - Even though the sun has melted much of the winter's snow across the Gogebic Range over the past few days, Ironwood is still in the running to set an all-time low average temperature for April.
As of Wednesday morning, the average temperature for the month was 26.9 degrees, the lowest recorded in the past 117 years.
That compares to the 117-year average of 38.1 degrees through April 25, according to the National Weather Service office in Marquette, where Ironwood's weather records are kept.
The highest average temperature for the month through April 25 was 48.6 degrees in 1915.
The high for the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. Wednesday in Ironwood was 52 degrees, with the overnight low dipping down to 25.
Snowmelt across the Gogebic Range accelerated Tuesday and Wednesday, as the melting ice and snow in the swamps was swept into streams and rivers.
There was still ice and snow on the Montreal River in the Norrie Park area, where the road is often closed because of high water during spring meltdown.
Smaller streams were swollen and were feeding the river systems.
The Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Authority notified the Daily Globe that the facility off Cloverland Drive began discharging wastewater into the Montreal River that had not received full advanced treatment around 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
The bypass is required to prevent sewage backups and to protect the advanced treatment systems, Mark Bowman, of the wastewater authority, said.
The majority of the wastewater continued to receive advanced treatment, however.
Rapid melting of the snowpack was listed on the notice from the wastewater authority. There was light rainfall across the area for a brief period on Tuesday afternoon.
Users of the wastewater system should be aware that 40 percent of the system is made up of laterals built on private property. Bowman said users can maintain or lower their rates by seeing to it that sump pumps and roof drains do no discharge directly into the sanitary collection system.
