Thursday, January 31, 2008

Weather Review

After a very chilly stretch of winter weather here in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the weather looks to modify within the next day or so. The last week in a half or so brought on Arctic Air down from Canada. We went through a stretch of about five days with high temperatures in the single digits and overnight lows well below zero. When it's cold, we haven't seen much snow. Things began to warm up very slowly and at the peak of the warmth on Monday and Tuesday of this week, temperatures rose to the low 40's. Some areas of the region even picked up some rain. But that is when the bottom dropped out.

A very strong cold front pushed through, dropping temperatures a good 20 to 30 degrees in an hour's time. The frontal passage also produced some meaningful snows in the general four to eight inch range, with higher totals in the northwest and northeastern U.P. Winds howled from the west-northwest; that combined with temperatures around zero brought dangerous wind chills anywhere from -30 to -50. We had a power failure to a very important set of equipment where I work which caused us to shut the plant down. All of my crew was out in the elements during the height of the horrendous weather and I can tell you one thing; it was VERY unpleasant. The wind was whipping the newly fallen snow and caused blizzard conditions. At times, it was very difficult to see five feet in front of you. Since then, the weather has calmed down and temperatures are beginning to warm up. Today, we experienced a high temperature in the lower teen's with ample sunshine. Things look to get even warmer in the days ahead with temps in the mid to upper 20's and continued sunshine. Now THAT'S enjoyable winter weather.

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