Snow totals 20- to 30-percent ahead of last year
by Peter Jakey– Managing Editor
Snowfall totals from the month of December are on pace to break a decade long record. The latest wave of snow dumped 17 inches of accumulation onto Presque Isle County, according to figures kept at the Presque Isle County Road Commission of Rogers City. That brings the total for the month to 51 inches, but didn?t include the snowfall from Monday. The total for the season is up to 59 inches. Trucks from both the road commission and Department of Public Works (DPW) of Rogers City were pulled Sunday from the roads.
The DPW stopped pushing snow around 11 a.m. and advised motorists to stay off the roads. The road commission was at it until 4 p.m., before announcing they would be parking the trucks until early the next morning. At one point Sunday evening, around 2 inches of snow per hour was coming down. The nine-year record for December is 61.75 inches, which was set in 2000. A breakdown of monthly amounts started being kept in the 1987-88 season. Before that the totals only indicated snowfall for the entire season. According to the Wallace Roeske, local weather spotter for the National Weather Service, he measured 17.5 inches of snow in Moltke Township. Roeske said it h
GREG MACMASTER, TV 7 & 4 meteorologist, said snow amounts are 20 to 30 percent higher than average. ?If you look at the past couple of years, we?ve been kind of thin,? said McMaster. ?We?ve been 10 to 15 percent lower. So, when we say a normal winter snow people automatically think of the last couple of years. There are other areas of the nation that are severely lacking. It is a cycle. It is just our turn to get it.? Gaylord usually receives 160 to 170 inches of snow. MacMaster said they already are at 90 inches.
He said the snow track was downstate last year, as Grand Rapids had more than the traditional snowbelts in northwest lower Michigan. The original forecast called for slightly warmer than average temperatures, and that?s way the season started in October and early November, until late November. Polar air has blasted into Michigan creating lots of lake effect snow, which has combined with system snow.