Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
SANTA CLAUS needed rollers on his sleigh for the Dec. 4 Jack Frost parade as warm weather from November carried into December. The parade was on Dec. 4 and there was little snow along the route.
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood - November was a top 10 weather month in Ironwood on two fronts.
The 5.36 inches of precipitation ranked as the eighth most over the past 114 years and the average temperature of 35.9 degrees was tenth, according to Kevin Crupi, of the National Weather Service office in Marquette.
The long-term average temperature for November over those 114 years is 29.8.
Crupi said the flow of Pacific air from the strong El Nino was responsible for the warm, wet month.
That pattern of weather has continued into December. As of Monday, the average temperature for the month was 33.8 degrees, compared to the norm of 19.2, and the 1.65 inches of precipitation was mostly in the form of rain.
Last month, most of the rain fell Nov. 11-13, a whopping 3.89 inches.
The 2.45 inches of rain that was recorded on Nov. 12 marked an all-time single day record for November, Crupi said.
The high temperature for Ironwood was 68 on Nov. 3 and the low was 5 on Nov. 28.
It has been the sixth warmest September through November period in Ironwood's history at 47.4 degrees, or 4.4 degrees above average.
Statistics come from the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Plant cooperative observer site and are based on records which began in July 1901. Normals used are for the period pf 1981 through 2010.
Elsewhere across the Upper Peninsula:
-It was the third warmest November at Houghton and fourth warmest November at Marquette.
-The highest temperature was 72 at Stonington in Delta County on Nov. 3.
-The lowest reading was zero at Stambaugh in Iron County on Nov. 28.
-The greatest snowfall for the month was 22.7 inches at Bergland dam in Ontonagon County.
-The lowest monthly snowfall was .3 inch at Manistique.
