HOUGHTON — The weather in December gave us a hint of what the Winter of 24-25 might look like with a return to the cold and resulting snow totals that Copper Country folks are accustomed to.

Looking at the statistics from January, those December hints were spot on. According to figures released from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Marquette office, temperatures for January were maybe a degree above normal for the Keweenaw, closer to historical norms.

Joseph Phillips, NOAA meteorologist, said average temperatures for January ranged from near 10 ° F in the southern and interior locations in Houghton County to near 20° F near Copper Harbor. “This is near or maybe a degree above normal for the Keweenaw, but the colder average is about 1-2 degrees below normal across Ontonagon, southern Houghton and Baraga counties.

Phillips said the average temperature at the Houghton County Airport was 16.8 degrees in January, just a tad warmer than the 16.1 degree historical average.

The average low for the month was 11° F, normal is 10° F. The average high was 22.5° slightly above the 22.2° degree norm.

“The coldest air since February 2021 was observed across the U.P. from Jan 19-21” Phillips said. “Interior locations saw nighttime lows range from -10 to -30F, with wind chills of -30 to -50F. The coldest air temperature observed at the Houghton Airport was -12F on Jan 21st. The cold air forced many schools to close.”

In many regards, the non-winter snowfall totals and warm temperatures of January 2024 are firmly in the past. “Compared to last January, we’re seeing temperatures closer to normal and higher snowfall amounts” Phillips said. In January 2024, Houghton Airport’s average temperature was 7.4 degrees above normal. The coldest temperature observed there in January was -3 and the warmest was 43.

Comparing snowfall totals from a year ago, Phillips said “It should be noted that seasonally, snowfall amounts by the end of January this year are much higher than last year. Watton is 73.2 inches vs 44.1 inches, Calumet-Tamarack 157.0 inches vs 98.2 inches, Herman 131.0 inches vs 85.6 inches and Baraga 61.8 last month vs 22 inches in January of 2024. Even though there was considerably higher snowfall totals last month than in January 2024, Phillips said we’re still seeing smaller snowfall totals than what is considered normal for our area.

“In general, it looks like snowfall across the region was 75-100% of normal in January.

There are some outliers though, such as Herman, which saw 57.5 inches in January when the normal is 47.8 inches”.

Phillips said patches of cold temperatures in the month did produce some traditional lake-effect snow totals.

“Three day snow totals during the cold air outbreak of 12-20″ were observed in portions of the Keweenaw Peninsula. 1-3″ of liquid was in the snow, which is near normal for northern Houghton and Keweenaw counties. But since most of the snow this past month was lake effect, the amount of liquid for Ontonagon, southern Houghton, and Baraga counties was about 70-90% of normal.”

Phillips said the outlook for February should bring smiles to snowmobilers and skiers.

“For February, with La Nina conditions present over North America, cold air is expected across the Northern Plains into the Great Lakes this month.

“At this point, there’s a signal for below normal temperatures across the first half of the month, but trending toward near normal for the second half. ”

“There aren’t any strong signals for big snowfall events right now, but the colder air and Lake Superior having little ice will mean lake effect snow will continue this month.”

While the winter of 23-24, in many respects, never really arrived, it looks like winter has returned to the Keweenaw and should stay around for a while.