October 19, 1857: First Snow
On October 19, 1857 it "snowed...for the first time but melted the next day," according to Bishop Baraga (There must have been a decent amount of snow if it took until the next day to melt.) He kept a daily diary from late 1855 into the Civil War Years. It contained many references to the weather.
Winter set in by mid-November 1857 as "the church stoves heated for the first time." The weather remained mild the rest of the fall. Then the warmest December in many years set in with no zero days reported out west in Minnesota. On New Year’s Eve, Baraga noted, “…it does not freeze at all and is always calm. The river is as clear as summer; not a piece of ice on it.” This warm winter was a sharp contrast to the previous winter. The winter of 1856-57 was declared the “severest winter ever known” on the Minnesota frontier. In the U.P. snow came early and stayed late. Baraga recorded heavy snow in Sault Ste. Marie on May 16, while ice floated in Marquette harbor in late June.
The winters of 1856-57 and 1857-58 illustrate the remarkable variability that occurs with weather and climate in Upper Michigan. Will last winter and this winter serve to further illustrate the contrast? Last winter was mild and dry. The pattern set up in October 2011 and never really shifted except for a few brief periods. This year, fall has been chilly and wet. Many spots have already had their first snow. Looking ahead, the end of the month may hold an even stronger preview of winter (Image 2). It will be interesting to see how the season unfolds and if this pattern, like last year’s, holds into winter.
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