CLICK TO HEAR JACK HALL’S INTERVIEW WITH NICK LANGLIEG, NWS MARQUETTE
Heavy snow and high winds have moved into the Upper Peninsula on Sunday, with blizzard conditions expected for extended periods of time through Tuesday morning.
Meteorologist Nick Langlieb at the National Weather Servce in Marquette told RRN News in a Sunday morning interview that this will be a long-duration event.
“The heaviest snow looks like it will be in the central and eastern U.P.,” he said. “We’re forecasting two, three feet of snow. One to two feet in the west. Areas like the higher terrain of Marquette County will have lake effect that will linger into Monday night, and we could get upwards of four feet. I would say that this one could be ranking as ‘historic’. Those kind of snowfall amounts would break a lot of records, looking at the county-by-county two-day snowfall records.”
Langlieb says the wind will also be a major issue as the storm intensifies.
“We will have widespread wind gusts of 45, 50 miles per hour (Sunday) night,” he said. “By tomorrow morning, in Marquette County, Alger County, places close to the lakeshore, could be experiencing wind gusts of 60 miles per hour or better. We will have significant blowing and drifting.”
He says there will be a lull in the snowfall overnight Sunday into Monday, but then the snow will re-intensify for a second blast.
Already on Sunday, the conditions worsened in the Straits of Mackinac to the point where the Mackinac Bridge was closed to all traffic at just after 9:30 in the morning. It was the fifth time the bridge has been closed in the past three weeks. As of 11:20 Sunday morning, the bridge was still completely closed.
Dozens of businesses closed on Sunday, and many have already said they will not open at all on Monday. For example, Escanaba’s Walgreen’s store opened Sunday morning, but closed up shop by late in the morning. Escanaba’s Elmer’s County Market closed at midnight Saturday and said it would stay closed all day on Sunday.
In Manistique, Schoolcraft Memorial Hospital will do only essential services on Monday, Multiple church services were either cancelled or shifted to on-line only Sunday morning, and most U.P. school districts began posting closure notices for Monday. Road commissions across the Upper Peninsula are urging you to stay home.
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