The clean-up from yesterday’s blizzard continues, and, as uncomfortable as the day was, the Keweenaw Peninsula seems to have gotten off relatively easily.
National Weather Service snowfall totals for the storm as of midday yesterday showed about 9 inches at both Houghton and Painesdale. Locally higher amounts fell in some other parts of the Keweenaw, and drifting caused by the fierce winds made it seem as if we got more.
By contrast, Champion recorded 24 inches, Negaunee 22 inches, and Munising 18 inches. Three Lakes, in eastern Baraga County, collected 16 inches. Iron River received 15 inches. Whiteout conditions closed M-28 between Marquette and Munising for a few hours.
The storm caused widespread power outages, but, again, the Keweenaw was largely spared. The exception was a stubborn problem in the Chassell area, which left more than 900 UPPCO customers without electricity for hours. Crews continue to address some lingering outages, mostly in southern Marquette and Delta Counties.
Road conditions have improved, but municipal and private snowplow crews are continuing to clear streets and parking lots. Please drive carefully.
While things are settling down, we’re not completely out of the woods. A clipper system is expected to drop 2 to 4 inches on the peninsula today, and another 1 to 3 inches tonight. Winds could gust to 20 miles per hour from the west today, and 30 miles per hour from the northwest tonight.
The deep low-pressure system known as a bomb cyclone affected weather across much of the Midwest. A strong seiche tipped the water level of Lake Erie, dropping it more than 5 feet at Toledo, with a corresponding rise at Buffalo. Waves on Lake Superior were recorded at nearly 28 feet north of Munising yesterday morning. The all-time record high wave ever recorded on the lake was 28.8 feet in 2017.
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