Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Bill Hall of Hurley uses his tractor to plow the snow around his home on Fifth Avenue Wednesday morning. The National Weather Service reports Ironwood received 14.9 inches of snow for a three-day period through 7 a.m. Wednesday. The season total sits at 143.8 inches as measured at the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Facility in Ironwood.
By ZACHARY MARANO
Ironwood - As the three-day winter storm comes to an end, 14.9 inches of snow were measured at the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Facility in Ironwood from Monday through 7 a.m. on Wednesday, bringing the total snow accumulation for the 2021-2022 winter season to 143.8 inches.
The National Weather Service in Marquette says that Ironwood, Watersmeet and most surrounding areas received 12-18 inches of snow, with the Porcupine Mountains and other, higher terrain in Gogebic County receiving even more than that.
Ironwood Area Schools were closed on Tuesday and called for a two-hour delay on Wednesday before cancelling school again due to significant snowfall. Bessemer, Ontonagon, Wakefield-Marenisco and Watersmeet school districts in Michigan and Hurly and Mercer school district in Wisconsin had a snow day on Tuesday and a two-hour delay on Wednesday. Ewen-Trout Creek School District was closed on Tuesday but had a three-hour delay on Wednesday.
Gogebic Community College also had a two hour delay Wednesday.
Still, the western Upper Peninsula managed to avoid the worst of the snowstorm, as Marquette and surrounding areas received almost three feet of snow. Matt Zika, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Marquette, said that the wind was blowing in a northeasterly direction and Ironwood was not directly in the path of the advancing storm.
Zika said that there is no significant chance precipitation in the immediate future besides a small amount of lake effect snow. He said that it will be colder than normal for the rest of February and early March, apart from Saturday, which has a weather forecast of 31 degrees.
Zika said that there is usually a major increase in temperatures from mid to late March. It is too soon to say if that will be the case this year, but Zika said that are early indicators that March will be closer to normal than the rest of this unusually cold winter.
According to the National Weather Service, it will be partly cloudy today with light winds and high temperatures around 14 degrees. There is a 30% chance of snow showers in the evening and then a slight chance of snow showers overnight. At night, temperatures will be around five below.
