Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By LARRY HOLCOMBE
Ironwood — Ironwood hit a winter benchmark last weekend it cleared 200 inches of snow for the season.
Snow on Friday, Saturday and into Sunday pushed the season total as measured at the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Facility to 209.7 inches of snow. An additional 0.9 inches of snow over night into Wednesday pushed the new total to 210.6 inches.
This is the first season Ironwood has cleared 200 inches of snow since hitting 223.7 inchesin 2012-2013.
The recent three-day snow storm brought 19 inches of snow — 6.6 inches in the 24-hour period ending at 7 a.m. Friday, another 9.2 inches by 7 a.m. Saturday, and 3.2 inches more by 7 a.m. Sunday.
All just in time for the beginning of spring on Monday.
Gogebic County Emergency Management Coordinator Heidi DeRosso said she is heartened by word she got from the National Weather Service recently. Officials there told her this has been one of the top 5 warmest winters across the U.P. and called snowfall totals “normal.”
Particularly in the Western U.P., the NWS told her there is 6 to 12 inches of “liquid water” in the snow that remains and called that “quite normal.”
She also said frost levels are not particularly deep which will help the soil absorb more moisture, and, “there appears to be room in the rivers to accommodate more water.”
But while they’re “expecting normal spring run off,” she said “heavy rains can escalate that very quickly.”
All that said, she said they know where their problem areas are, they have sand bags on hand and will continue to monitor the situation.
Ironwood Public Safety Director Andrew DiGiorgio said he’s hoping that temperatures will fall below freezing at night to slow the melting and reduce the threat of flooding.
He said they have an emergency plan in place and they’re constantly monitoring the Montreal River as it can overflow it’s banks and flood nearby properties, adding they have a good working relationship with city of Hurley and Iron County across the river, as they have the same concerns.
Iron County Emergency Management director Stacy Ofstad said they are hoping for a slow melt. “If it goes fast we’ll have some roads under water.”
“If it freezes at night it will slow it down,” he said. “If it melts fast it will overwhelm the culverts and water will run up over the road. That will degrade the road.”
Ofstad also said property owners should be mindful of the snow load on their home and other structures, as it can be pretty heavy. “If they’re unable to remove it themselves they should be looking to getting someone to remove it for them.”
Jonathan Voss of the National Weather Service in Marquette told The Globe on Tuesday that there aren’t any big storms on the horizon, “no precipitation including rain for the next week to 10 days.”
As for temperatures, he forecasted highs in the low to mid 30s for today, lower 40s for Friday, and low to mid 40s for Saturday and Sunday; with lows for each day “probably in the teens to low 20s.”
“There should be some snow melt during the day, but colder temperatures at night should slow things down,” he said.
