National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Powerful Pacific Storm to Continue Impacting Northern California; Heavy Snow in the Appalachians and Portions of the Northeast

A strong atmospheric river will continue to impact northern California with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding through Friday. Unsettled weather is expected across much of the Northeast and Great Lakes over the next few days, including the likelihood of heavy snow in the central Appalachians and higher elevations of northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New York. Read More >

Overview of the Heavy Lake Effect Snow Event January 5-6, 2022

A "clipper" system moved from west to east across Minnesota, Wisconsin, and northern Lower Michigan Tuesday January 5 through Thursday January 7. The system dropped a couple inches of snow across Upper Michigan.

However, the big story was the persistent moderate to heavy lake effect snow in western and northern Upper Michigan with this system. The system slowed down as it passed by to the south, and extended a trough back to its west across the U.P., which allowed north wind lake effect snow to persist for nearly 48 hours.

This persistent lake effect snow resulted in impressive snowfall totals in parts of Marquette and Baraga Counties, as well as around Ironwood. This storm yielded the biggest 2-day snow total for the Marquette County highlands in nearly 3 years (Feb 2019). Snow totals of 24-28 inches were observed in the higher terrain of central Marquette County as well as just north of Ironwood. Meanwhile, some parts of the U.P. which did not see any lake effect snow from this system saw as little as 2 inches total.

Image
Storm Total Snowfall

Click here for a complete list of snowfall reports from this storm

nws logo Media use of NWS Web News Stories is encouraged!
Please acknowledge the NWS as the source of any news information accessed from this site.
nws logo