MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – The Upper Peninsula has seen significant lake-effect snow, especially in areas with a Northwest exposure to Lake Superior. 19 News spoke with the National Weather Service, about why some places received two feet of snow and others, less than an inch.
Since Thanksgiving, the City of Munising has seen 24″ of snow, while Marquette received less than an inch. According to Meteorologist Matt Zika with the National Weather Service, this past fall has been the warmest on record causing higher water temperatures, so when frigid air passes over that warm water it gets absorbed by the system and falls as snow once it makes landfall.
“And with the pattern set up with this cold air over the record warm waters, it just sets up the machine to where it was just dumping snow in areas favored by northwesterly winds,” said Zika.
Marquette is somewhat protected by the Keweenaw Peninsula, allowing the city to come away with far less snow than its neighbors.
“Marquette isn’t favored by northwesterly winds, and so because of that, it’s been snowing all around us. Munising got two feet of snow. The Soo is getting three feet of snow. The Keweenaw is getting two feet of snow. Ironwood is getting almost two feet of snow. And here in Marquette, we just get a few flurries from time to time,” said Zika.
The main driver for these snow events is wind direction. Winter weather winds typically come from the northwest, which usually means lake-effect snow.
“The Keweenaw protects us with that northwesterly flow, and it kind of disrupts the bands and prevents them from making it over the hills down into the city of Marquette and depending on that wind direction, will determine who’s going to get the big snows,” explained Zika.
Zika explains that our mild, snowless winter from last year will not be repeated in 2025.
“This year will be the warmest year we’ve ever seen, but it doesn’t look like that’s really going to necessarily carry over as we progress into 2025 and into the winter season,” said Zika.
We won’t be in the deep freeze for all of December, as Zika believes we’ll get a slight warm-up mid-month.
