Graham Jaehnig/Daily Mining Gazette. The calendar may say April but the snowbanks along Houghton's Dodge Street seem to be in mid-winter form. As of Thursday, the Keweenaw Peninsula topped the 300 inch mark in total snowfall this winter, nearly twice what the area received a year ago.

HOUGHTON – The Keweenaw Peninsula has surpassed the 300-inch mark for snow in the 2024-25 Winter Season. The Keweenaw County Road Commission reported on Thursday a season total of 301.25 inches. The snowiest month was February, with a total of 91 inches. The first snow of the season was reported Oct. 31, 2024, with two inches having fallen.

Jesse Wiederhold, public relations and events coordinator with Visit Keweenaw, said that last year, the Keweenaw Peninsula saw its final snowfall on April 4, closing out the season with 153.25 inches. “This year? We’ve nearly doubled that total,” Widerhold said, “with 148.5 more inches than this time last year.”

While most people are ready for spring, significant snowfall in April is not uncommon. Ben Warren, meteorologist with the with the National Weather Service, in Maquette, said springtime in the Upper Peninsula does not mean the region is immune to lake effect snow or snow from big low-pressure systems passing through.

“Just the other day, we got 20 inches of snow at our offices in Negaunee Township,” Warren said. “it’s more of a nuisance than anything.”

April is showing a typical early spring weather pattern, said Warren. April began with below average temperatures, he said, but that should moderate soon.

“Things are going to be cooling down just a tiny bit this weekend, and into early next week,” he said, “but looking beyond that, into the 7 to 14 day range, I think things are going to become a little bit more normal, maybe a little above normal, with highs in the 50s, even poking 60 degrees by the middle of the month for sure.”

While the U.P. has not experienced many storm systems this winter, lake effect snow has been a separate issue. “We were a little baffled at our end,” Warren said. “We weren’t getting any big winter snow storm systems, in the U.P., but we were getting a lot of lake effect snow, including up in the Keweenaw in areas we call the Northwest wind snow belts, like in the Keweenaw and Munising, where they got a lot. Munising broke their snowfall record.”

Warren said that moving forward, models suggest weather will trend more toward norma by the end of April. While passing the 300-inch mark this season, it still was more mild than the record year. The winter of 1978-79 saw the record for snowfall, with a total of 390.4 inches. To put that in perspective, that is just over 32.5 feet of snow.