Paula Porter, for the Gazette A Village of Calumet sno-go cuts back snow banks in this February 13, photo. The NOAA weather office said snowfall totals this winter more than doubled numbers from a year ago

HOUGHTON — In “Two Gentlemen of Verona,” William Shakespeare writes of “The uncertain glory of an April day.” Indeed, if there was one word to describe the month just past in the Keweenaw, it would be uncertain. Meteorologist Joseph Phillips of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marquette Weather Office said, “The biggest takeaway from April was that it was wet, with a mix of snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain and thunderstorms all reported.”

Despite what seem like a wide disparity, with heavy snowfall, heavy rains warm temperatures and high winds, numbers show a pretty normal April, comparatively speaking.

“Temperatures came out to be mostly near normal in April,” according to Phillips. “At the Houghton County Airport, the average temperature was 36.5 degrees, while normal is 37.2.” The average high temperature was 45.3 while the average low was 27.6 which compares to the average normals of 45.7 and 28.6, respectively.

Sticking with the “uncertain glory” them, the coldest day in the month was on April 1, no fooling, at two degrees above zero, while the warmest was on April 28 with an unseasonable 64 degrees.

The pattern repeated itself throughout the area, according to Phillips. “Copper Harbor was also near normal, with the average temperature at 37.5, normal is 37, the high averaged a bit cooler than normal, 44.1 compared to 44.9 and the low of 30.8 almost identical to the 30.6 degree normal.”

Phillips said despite a snowier winter overall, the month of April was pretty close to normal, with Herman down about 3 inches and Watton 5 inches below normal, with 10.2 inches of snow last month compared to the norm of 15.6.

“Calumet-Tamarack had 19 inches of snow in April,” Philips said.

Phillips said “April 2, was an interesting day, producing thunderstorms, rain, snow, hail and sleet. Widespread strong winds from 30-45 mph were also experienced outside of the thunderstorms.” He said April 21 was by far the wettest day of the month with more than an inch of rainfall observed.

Many of those April showers were accompanied by wind, most notably on April 14 with winds in Houghton gusting to more than 55 mph.

When taking a look at the winter as a whole, Phillips stated the obvious. “This winter was certainly much different than last year, with overall snowfall averaged above normal and temperatures near normal.

The stark difference between this winter and last was consistent throughout the region. “Watton had 148.1 inches compared to 82.6 last winter. Normal is about 121 inches.”

The Calumet Tamarck area experienced the heaviest amount of snow in the region at 329.4 inches. That’s more than 156 more than than the winter of 2023-24. Baraga reported the lowest snowfall totals in the area this winter at 107.5. That’s more than double last year’s 43.6 inches.

“After a warm fall, temperatures this past winter look to be close to normal,” Phillips said. “In the period from January through March, temperatures at the Houghton County airport were between 1-3 degrees above normal.”