January produced four-day period of sub-zero weather

By RALPH ANSAMI

[email protected]

Ironwood — January in Ironwood will be remembered for a four-day period when the thermometer never reached above zero.

Kevin Crupi, of the National Weather Service office in Marquette, said although the Jan. 16-19 period produced the below-zero weather, the average temperature for the month was 2 degrees above normal, at 13.5 degrees.

Crupi said the west to east flow of mild Pacific air associated with the El Nino produced above normal temperatures in the Upper Great Lakes states for a third consecutive month.

Snowfall for January of 47.2 inches in Ironwood was 3 inches above the long-term average.

Crupi noted “persistent” lake effect snows in the U.P. occurred most frequently over the western part of the peninsula and in other areas that received northwest winds.

Ice-free Lake Superior waters fueled the snowfalls.

The period of September 2015 through January 2016 in Ironwood went down in the record books as the third wettest such period in Ironwood’s history.

Ironwood’s weather statistics are kept at the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Plant off Cloverland Drive.

In other January highlights, total precipitation of 2.19 inches was slightly above the norm of 1.93 inches.

The highest temperature was 45 on Jan. 30, while the low was minus-13 on Jan. 18.

The most 24-hour snowfall was 8.5 inches on Jan. 27-28.

The high of 45 on Jan. 30 tied the record set in set in 1952.