Home / Featured / Remembering the Father’s Day Flood
Frank A. Douglass Insurance Agency

Remembering the Father’s Day Flood

June 17th marks the three-year anniversary of the devastating flooding that hit the Keweenaw on Father’s Day of 2018. Meteorologist Matthew Zika says the situation facing forecasters was one of uncertainty that night.

We knew there was going to be locally heavy rain somewhere, fifty miles either side of the line across the UP. Until it started raining and thunderstorms started training across the Keweenaw, we didn’t know ground zero was going to be right around the Houghton/Hancock area.

He says the torrential rains that affected Houghton, Hancock, and Lake Linden in particular are becoming more common, including across the Upper Midwest.

There definitely has been an increase in these short duration-intense rainfall events, especially during the summer season. If we look back over the last ten years, we have had some historic events in Duluth in 2012. The western UP had a big flash flood event in 2016.

Zika says models are improving and becoming more accurate, but the biggest lesson learned is the need to push out notices to the public. The Father’s Day Flood made that difficult since it hit just after midnight. Even a robust spotter program was nullified by the darkness. As roads and bridges washed away, no one knew the true extent of the damage until hours later.

Check Also

41 North Film Festival celebrates 10 years in 2024

Students and the Copper Country won’t have to travel very far to see some great …