Still Some Snow Left in Upper Michigan

Herman, Michigan had snow flurries five of the first 8 days of May

This is the Mount Ripley Ski Area Saturday (5/9) (courtesy of Michigan Tech). There are still some patches of snow.

Here’s a map showing where snow is still on ground. There’s still a patch of snow in the Keweenaw Peninsula, especially on the north-facing slopes in the forests. There’s also still a pretty good amount of snow north of Sault Ste. Marie in Canada.

Herman is a small town west of Marquette. It was largely a Finnish settlement and quite a few residents worked in the mines. The population peaked around 1920, when Herman had over 7,200 residents. There is no official population count today, but it’s estimated to be between 105 and 250. It has a fairly continuous snowfall record.

This past winter, the season snowfall total reached 366”. The average season snowfall for Herman is 206.8”, so that was 159.2” above average. This past March, they set a 24-hour snowfall record with 34” of snow, which boosted their snow cover to a record 68”. They had a trace of snow (flurries) on five of the first 8 days of May. They also had a continuous snow cover of 5 months and one day this past winter.

Here’s a webcam grab from the FAA camera at Point Lay, Alaska. Earlier today they were reporting at temperature of 9° with a wind chill of -10°.

Finally, here’s a look at the current weather at the South Pole, where it’s autumn. Pretty chilly - and dark - they get no sunshine and even no twilight in May, June and July.