The City of Hancock was barely visible from Houghton’s waterfront Wednesday as severe winter weather rocked most of the Upper Peninsula. (Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette)

HOUGHTON — Schools in Houghton, Baraga and Keweenaw and Ontonagon counties were closed on Wednesday in the face of a severe winter storm. At 6:20 p.m. on Tuesday, schools sent emails announcing that due to predicted inclement weather, schools would be closed on Wednesday.

Also closed were Gogebic Community College campuses in Houghton and Ironwood, and Northern Michigan University. The real indicator of the severity of the storm, however was Michigan Technological University.

“Due to deteriorating road conditions, Michigan Tech will close for the day beginning at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 5,” the university posted on its website. “This includes all offices, labs, and classes–including online classes.”

Campus shuttles were discontinued at 3 p.m. Dining residence halls continued to operat.

All evening activities were canceled, with one exception: The men’s varsity basketball game scheduled for 6 p.m. at the SDC was continue as planned. This was because Roosevelt University’s team had arrived in Houghton by bus on Tuesday.

At 3:20 p.m. Wednesday, the Keweeanw Co+op released a statement, saying, in part:

“Due to today’s weather conditions, Keweenaw Co+op will be closing early at 4 p.m. to ensure the safety of our staff and shoppers.”

Conditions were no better in Keweenaw County, where Sgt. Jeremy Lassila, with the Sheriff’s Office, said the County Road Commission was struggling to keep roads open.

“Visibility isn’t real great,” said Lassila. “We’ve had a couple of trees come down on utility lines. The wind is really a factor right now.”

In spite of weather and road conditions, as of 2 p.m. Wednesday, the department had not received any reports of car crashes or injuries.

John Cima, assistant engineer with the Houghton County Road Commission, discovered the severity of the weather differed by location.

“Actually, in Hancock, it’s not awful,” Cima said at around 2:15 p.m. on Wednesday, “but, when I was in Calumet earlier, it was blowing quite a bit more, and it seemed there was quite a bit more drifting there.”

While Sgt. Lassila had discussed wind blowing trees down, Cima said the wind was not an issue in Houghton County like as in Keweenaw County.

“Up there, the guys were going back through their runs because of drifting,” Cima said of Keweenaw County Road crews. “The plow went through, and two hours later it seemed like it had never gone.”

At 3:10 p.m. the National Weather service recorded winds at the Houghton County Memorial Airport at out of the north at 22 miles per hour, with gusts reaching 36.

The National Weather Service, in Marquette forecast predicts Thursday’s weather to have improved over Wednesday. Thursday’s forecast calls for a 20 percent chance of snow showers after 3p.m., and partly sunny, with a high near 32. Northwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.