October 31, 2012: A White Halloween
In early March 2003, Lake Superior was virtually frozen over. The previous Ocotober was one of only two Halloweens prior to today that had a snow cover at the NWS.
Snow fell over sections of the U.P. yesterday and, in some spots, accumulated overnight. Web cams in the higher elevations of the Copper Country showed a ground covering this morning. In the eastern U.P., the western Chippewa County village of Strongs had a couple of inches on the ground earlier today. Ten miles south of Grand Marais a National Weather Service (NWS) spotter called in a 3-inch total. By far, the most fell in the north-central portion of Upper Michigan over the higher elevations. Around 2 inches was reported at Gwinn with between 4 and 5 inches in Negaunee. It was an “elevation snow”, typical for this time of year. Marquette had only rain and snow mixed with no accumulation.
Snow cover on Halloween is a relatively rare event. During the last 34 Halloweens (since 1979) there were only two that had a snow cover at the NWS prior to today. The deepest cover was in 1993 with 5 inches. More recently in 2002, there was a two-inch cover. It’s interesting to note that both the following winters were very cold. They were cold enough, so at some point, Lake Superior froze over in both 1994 and 2003 (Image above). Of course, this is a small sample, too small to forecast a cold winter based on this factor alone.
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