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After a snow blitz that began three-and-a-half months earlier, Copper Country residences saw light at the end of the tunnel as mild weather greeted March 1979.  The tunnel collapsed, however, on March 4-5 under the weight of the heaviest snow of the season. 

A low pressure system developed over the inter-mountain region the first of the month (Image 1).  It redeveloped over the southern Plains, tapped Gulf of Mexico moisture, drifted east and then shot northeastward (Image 2).  The majority of the snow that fell during this long winter was the fluffy, lake-effect variety with little wind.  “It was basically like gum drops,” remembers Keweenaw County Road Engineer-Manager Jim Heikkila, “It just piled and piled and piled.”  This early March storm was the wet and heavy variety, driven by strong east to northeasterly winds.  By the time the storm wound down, over two feet had come down, raising the snow cover to 60 inches. 

The heavy snow of 1978-79 put a strain on area infrastructure and snow plow drivers.  In Lake Linden, “a disaster and a miracle” occurred at the same time on January 17 when the Torch Lake Ice Arena collapsed.  Two-and-a-half feet of snow had been shoveled off the roof as recently as a week before, but that did not matter.  The building could not take any more weight.  Miraculously, no hockey or ice skating was going on when the structure came down.  Three men inside the arena raced for the door at the first sound of rumbling.  They were actually blown out of the building by the force of the collapse. 

In Greenland southeast of Ontonagon, a large portion of the township hall crumbled beneath the weight of the snow.  The building was more than 100 years old and had not been used in recent years.  Many other sheds and garages collapsed throughout Keweenaw, Houghton and Ontonagon counties. 

As for Road Commission workers, the almost constant snow kept them out on the roads.  “I hated to go talk to the guys between January and the end of February into March,” Heikkila remembers, half-joking.  “They were plowing so often and so long, and of course, once they got done plowing snow, they had to go home and move their own.  They became quite ornery; their tempers flared and they were not easy to get along with.  I just didn’t go visit them.” 

The 1978-79 season brought an all-time record 390.4 inches to Keweenaw County.  The average snowfall is just less than 242 inches.