Latest news, weather, high school sports for Michigan’s Upper Peninsula

On October 9, 1967 a daily-record 3.7 inches of snow was reported in Ironwood.  It kept snowing into the next day with another record-setting 7.2 inches.  A storm developed over the Central Plains at the beginning of the second week in October 1967 (Image 1 above) and lifted slowly to the northeast while deepening.  As the low pulled away to the east, the air got just cold enough to produce lake-enhanced snow off Lake Superior over the western U.P (Image 2).  Farther east, only a trace was measured in the City of Marquette for the whole event. 

October 1967 was a cold month over the Upper Midwest (Image 3).  The early chill gave the Gogebic Range a head start on winter.  By month’s end, another storm deepened over the Great Lakes and brought heavy snow to the west end.  Ironwood had another daily-record 15 inches of snow on October 25, 1967.  The snow continued over the next few days and area ski hills opened by Halloween.  Farther east, Marquette again missed out on the heavy snow initially.  But persistent, cold northwest to north winds eventually brought snow even down to lake level.  Over 5 inches of snow fell in Marquette on October 27-28, 1967—the first measurable snow of the season. 

Another measureable snow is quite possible over the same areas that had snow this past weekend.  In fact, it’s possible that a little snow may fall farther south away from the Lake Superior snow belts as colder air flows in later tonight changing the system rain we were getting this afternoon into snow before ending.  If it snows, there should not be much.  The GFS model shows only a dusting to an inch of accumulation through Thursday night over the western U.P. (Image 4).