There’s an old saying that says, “If March comes in like a lion (stormy), it’ll go out like a lamb (quiet weather)” and vice versa. Well, in Upper Michigan, March went out like a lion – or maybe we should say a polar bear!. (top pick is Mt. Ripley Saturday PM)
Upper Michigan had up to 20″ of new snow Friday into Friday night. The 20″ total came in from the small town of Watson, northwest of Escanaba. Other snow totals included 18,6″ at Sault Ste. Marie (including 12.5″ in 6 hours), 17.5: at Dafter and Bay Mills, 17″ at Watson and Hulbert, 16″ at Kinross, 15″ at Iron Mt., 14.5″ at Norway, 14″ at Gladstone and Eckerman, 12.5″ at Pickford, 11″ at Arnold, 9″ at Escanaba, 8.5″ at Rapid River and 8″ at Cedarville.
The pic. above is along M-94 near Shingleton. The snow and clouds pushed out quickly around midday leaving bright sunshine. Roads were plowed quickly and with the stronger early April sunshine, travel conditions improved rather quickly.
The contiguous U.S. has a 29.9% snow cover this morning (4/1). There is heavy snow cover over much of the Western Mountains. There’s plenty of snow vrom the Dakotas, across Minnesota, N. Wisconsin and the U.P. and also in northern New England.
Here’s how much snow was on the ground in Michigan early Saturday: 44″ Marquette Airport, 38″ Three Lakes, 33″ Iron Mountain (15″ new snow) and also at Ishpeming, 32″ Paulding, 31″ Herman, 30″ Painesdale, 29″ Dafter, 27″ Big Bay, 25″ Atlantic Mine, 23″ Au Train, 20″ Houghton and Greenland, 18″ Rapid River, 15″ Ontonagon, 12″ Garden Corners, 10″ nine miles SSW of Gaylord (most in Lower Michigan), 7″ Manistique, 4″ St. Ignace, 3″ Houghton Lake and Fife Lake, 2″ Atlanta, Graylng, Mio and Benzonia, and 1″ at Alpena and Charlevoix.
Here’s snow and ice cover in North America. Canada has lots of snow and it’s been cold in Central Canada. Winnipeg didn’t get above freezing during the whole month of March. Hudson Bay often remains mostly ice covered until mid-late June.
