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

One of the U.P.’s most widespread, severe storms was in full swing on Washington ’s Birthday in 1922. 

“The storm was ushered in…like the arrival of a commanding officer before his troops when cannon boom the salutes.”  With this military analogy, a newspaper reporter in Menominee tied in Washington’s Birthday with this unprecedented blitzkrieg of snow and wind.  During the peak of the storm, the “cannon boom” of thunder could be heard following lightning strikes, which were “the most vivid ever seen…before in the winter time.” 

The blizzard began late on the 21^st and contained the key elements found in a crippling event: prolonged snow and raging wind.  Two feet of snow fell on the Twin Cities of Marinette-Menominee, blown into drifts up to 10 feet deep by northeasterly winds as high as 50 miles per hour.  In addition, sleet and freezing rain fell for a time on the 22^nd, leading to a hard, frozen covering over the top of the huge mass of freshly fallen snow. 

Telegraph and telephone service was disrupted and trains and streetcars became snowbound.  By nightfall on Washington’s Birthday, Menominee was virtually isolated from the rest of the world.  While there had been greater falls of snow, this blizzard was unrivaled in its duration, coupled with the ice that even caused railroad plows to slide off the tracks into the ditch. 

The storm slammed the entire Upper Peninsula.  Escanaba endured its worst storm in at least a decade.  Drifts piled 15 to 20 feet high throughout Delta County, bringing all traffic to a halt.  Disruptions in communication and travel were reported all the way north to the Keweenaw, west to Ironwood and east to the Sault. 

Outside of Negaunee, the Chicago & Northwestern’s Railway telegraph operator sent an S.O.S. call after he became trapped in his office.  The operator worked the night shift during the peak of the snowstorm.  By morning, he realized he was snowed in; drifts surrounded the telegraph office and blocked the doors.  Fortunately, the operator was able to wire division headquarters in Escanaba for help.  A big railroad plow eventually made its way north to Cascade and the men aboard dug out the imprisoned operator, who could have been trapped for days if he had not made the call.  The snow around Cascade Junction drifted 10 to 12 feet high and in a few spots the drifts piled up to 20 feet. 

Three Ishpeming girls spent a harrowing night in the blizzard.  They attended a dance in Negaunee and afterwards went to the train station and waited for the midnight train, which finally arrived at 5 a.m. 

When they reached Ishpeming, they started for their homes in Cleveland location, but the storm was so severe they lost their way.  Confused, exhausted and frozen, they took shelter in the doorway of a factory.  In the morning, a passerby noticed the girls huddled together, crying. 

The man realized they were “in a bad way” and urged them to seek shelter at the depot.  Neither of the three seemed able to walk, so he carried them, one by one, to the station.  After about an hour spent thawing out, the girls set out on another, and this time successful, attempt to reach their homes. 

The system raked a wide area.  The Green Bay region southwest into the Fox Valley sustained heavy damage due to ice.  Thousands of trees were toppled when ice up to an inch thick accumulated on branches near Manitowoc.  In Minnesota, twelve people died, including four found frozen in snow drifts at Minneapolis.  In Duluth, a northeasterly gale blew for three days, piling the heavy snow into 30-foot drifts.  These mountains of snow were “the deepest ever known” at the Zenith City. 

Big snowstorms in February are an exception rather than the rule.  Often this late in the winter season, the storm track is suppressed to our south.  That’s why February has the lowest average snowfall of the winter months.  It also has a lower average than March, because in March, the storm track starts to migrate north again a big storm (St. Patty’s Day) is more likely. 

This February was an exception to the rule as that big storm wound up over the Upper Peninsula earlier this week.  The current system will just slowly meander to the east of us over the weekend, so lots of clouds and a little snow will be the rule.  The storm track looks as if it may be suppressed farther south during this upcoming week.