Despite Leelanau County receiving more than a foot of snow in the past week alone, a warm-up from the colder weather is expected next week.
As of Wednesday morning, the Maple City National Weather Service (NWS) volunteer station has recorded 123.6 inches of snow this winter, surpassing the total accumulated snowfall of 66.5 inches measured for the entire 2023-2024 season in Leelanau. The first day the Maple City station recorded snowfall was on Nov. 21, with snowfall and cold temperatures being relatively consistent over the last several months.
Local school districts have already had to use anywhere from six to eight snow days this year due to the snowy conditions and bitter cold weather. Glen Lake Community Schools has taken eight snow days, Leland Public School has used seven days, and both Suttons Bay and Northport Public School have used six days so far. State law limits districts to using up to six days to call off school, however, there is an opportunity to apply for forgiveness from the state for up to three more days.
The Leelanau County Road Commission has also been busy keeping roads cleared, recently noting that for the first time in nearly a decade, staff can see the back of the salt barn. In addition, plow drivers have been putting in overtime up to 925 hours compared to 757 hours for the entire winter last year.
Dan Cornish, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord, said there will be some snow chances today and continuing into Friday as the active weather winds down and temperatures rise to the 30s later next week. Southwest winds in the forecast will help draw some of the warmer air from the south up into the Great Lakes by the end of the weekend.
“For most places, there’ll likely be around an inch (of snow) or less, fairly light accumulations compared to what we’ve seen recently,” Cornish said regarding the forecast in the days ahead.
“We’re actually going to see a little bit of a warm up, it’s going to feel like a little bit of a shock to some people, it’s been pretty cold, especially with colder wind chills in the first half of this week.”
Last season, snowfall in the region was unusually low and followed one of the warmest December and February months on record due to El Nino. Cornish said with the last several winters being warmer than normal, this winter season, which has been closer to average seasonal temperatures, has felt a lot colder.
“There’s definitely been a lot of areas across northern Michigan, both the northern lower and the UP, that have gotten a lot of snow this year… The temperatures that we’ve had so far this winter have been pretty normal, nothing extreme and nothing unprecedented,” Cornish said. “It’s definitely a cooler winter as compared to last winter’s. Last winter was the warmest winter on record for much of the area. It was far and away the warmest — so that played a little bit into it.”
Lake effect snow has played a big part in the active weather recently, Cornish said, explaining that the majority of lakes have been exposed and ice cover has been scarce, so temperatures have not been as cold as they could be.
