Report from the field (now that we can see it again!): NWS MQT snowcover season finally ends.

[Thunder Road]

The continuous snow cover portion of winter 2018-19 has ended at NWS Marquette. The snow that fell November 9th finally melted this past Tuesday. Those 165 days make it the second longest snow cover streak at the office since records began there in 1961. (All records are unofficial blah blah blah...)

The season total snowfall to date is 221.7" - only slightly above the 1981-2010 normal of 203.3" Our peak snow depth occurred AOA February 25th; it was 55". By that point our Observations Program Leader had added extenders to our snow sticks (they only go to 60" so we had to be prepared) and raised our rain bucket up about two feet to stop the snow from drifting into it. (Our 10 m anemometer also froze in place for about three weeks following an ice storm - but that's a story for another day!)

I've attached a picture of me on the sidewalk out to the instrument shed, where the snow had drifted against the building a little bit. (I'm 5'6" for scale, so the depth behind me is only a few inches greater than the ambient depth.)

A rain/snow mix is in the forecast for Monday, so winter still isn't over up here!

 

 

[Rainshadow]

I saw you posted a picture of downtown Marquette the other day on FB. I was surprised there was no snow in it.  You post above explains it.  Kind of like BGM (Office) vs the city of BGM.

[Thunder Road]

15 hours ago, Rainshadow said:

I saw you posted a picture of downtown Marquette the other day on FB. I was surprised there was no snow in it.  You post above explains it.  Kind of like BGM (Office) vs the city of BGM.

Yup, very sensitive to the elevation change. I live about 1/3 of the way between the lakeshore and the office and even there it's a noticeable difference.