January 10, 1975: The Storm of the Century—But not Here
A storm's track can make all the difference as to whether the storm will be a memorable one over a given region. Take, for example, the situation on January 10, 1975. An intense winter storm developed on the Southern Plains (Image 1 above) and headed north-northeast. The system's movement put Upper Michigan in the warm sector. Marquette had a high of 40 degrees on this date, with a bit of snow and then rain. Early the next day, the temperature topped out at a record high of 46 with more rain and then a change to snow as the low-pressure's cold front blasted through. Record low pressures were set along the path of the storm from the Upper Mississippi Valley to western Lake Superior where the gigantic circulation sat early on the morning of the 11th (Image 2).
On the west side of the system, the system was labeled “The Storm of the Century.” Portions of the Dakotas into central Minnesota had an all-out blizzard as bitter cold air funneled in along with heavy snow and white-out conditions. Nearly two feet of snow fell in some areas with temperatures sinking below zero.
After the low's passage, a more normal January pattern became established over Upper Michigan. By month's end, several systems brought a significant snow cover to the entire Peninsula.
Rain is coming to the Upper Peninsula this January 10-11. This is not a huge storm, but the remnants of the low that brought Texans their big rains. The low will track to our southeast. However, the air mass over us is so mild that rain is guaranteed. It still appears that cold arctic air will invade the Great Lakes; probably about the middle of next week. Both the European model and the GFS are on board with this scenario (Image 3). That doesn’t make it a sure thing, but the probability is rising of some of the coldest air we’ve experienced in several years.
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