Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
THE REMAINING shore ice along Lake Superior at Saxon Harbor breaks up over the weekend as temperatures hit the 50s.
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood - The small parking lot at Oman's Creek at Little Girl's Point was full around 4:30 p.m. Saturday as area residents basked in the warmth of a February thaw.
People combed the beach on a sunny day - some standing tall on the shore ice - as away from land, Lake Superior was mostly ice-free.
Kayakers paddled the calm lake, viewing the ice formations along the shoreline.
Deer grazed among bare patches of brown ground as most of the snow vanished with temperatures in the 50s.
Summer residents of the Point returned for the weekend to enjoy the winter respite.
It was even warmer on Sunday, with the high reading of 58 degrees in Ironwood setting a 116-year record for the 24-hour period to 7 a.m. on Monday. The record low for that period is minus-31 recorded in 1966.
Saturday's high of 53 was well short of the record of 60.
At the Gogebic-Iron Wastewater Treatment Plant off Cloverland Drive, the on-the-ground snow total had melted down to just 7 inches by Monday morning. The record for Feb. 20 is 9 inches in 1915, according to the National Weather Service office in Marquette.
The mild Presidents Day Weekend temperatures continued into Monday and it began raining in the afternoon.
The monthly snow total stands at 14.1 inches, compared to the long-term average of 21 inches.
The average temperature for February in Ironwood stood at 18.9 degrees as of Monday, compared to the long-term norm of 13.8 degrees.
A cool-down, of sorts, is expected to arrive on Saturday, when a high of 21 is predicted, but there's no below-zero weather in the 10-day forecast.
