Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
By RALPH ANSAMI
Ironwood — February temperatures were 7 degrees above normal in Ironwood, the ninth warmest in the past 116 years.
Highs of 58 degrees on Feb. 17 and Feb. 19 pushed the monthly average temperature to 22.3 degrees, according to Kevin Crupi, of the National Weather Service office in Marquette.
Pacific air flowed into the Ironwood area around mid-month, when some of the precipitation came down as rain.
Snowfall for the month totaled 24.5 inches, or 3.7 inches below the long-term average.
A 9.1-inch snowfall on Feb. 7-8 set a record for that 24-hour period, according to the NWS. The old record was 7 inches in 1937.
Elsewhere in the Upper Peninsula, much more snow fell. Grand Marais, in Alger County, recorded 73.5 inches for the month and 4.93 inches of precipitation.
Stambaugh, in in Iron County, posted the low U.P. temperature for February at minus-22 degrees on Feb. 4.
The high U.P. reading for the month was 64 in Stonington, in Delta County, on Feb. 18.
Across the U.P., temperatures were above freezing from Feb. 18-23, averaging 10 to 25 degrees above normal for that period, according to Crupi.
Elsewhere in the U.P.:
—Watersmeet recorded 2.18 inches of precipitation and 19.8 inches of snowfall.
—Ontonagon reported 21.4 inches of snowfall.
—Greenland, in Ontonagon County, had an average temperature 25.5 degrees, 2.17 inches of precipitation and 38.7 inches of snow.
—Bergland dam had an average temperature 20.1 degrees, 3.01 inches of precipitation and 31.9 inches of snow.
—Painesdale, in Houghton County, received 62.4 inches of snowfall.