• Tuesday-What'sUP February 5 - 09:18 am

Last week my co-worker, Lindsay White asked me to pose by the snow banks on the property where we work (one of my other jobs) in Calumet. She wanted to show the folks in our company that work in southern Wisconsin, what kind of snow we deal with here UP North on a daily basis.

Those huge piles of snow that I'm standing next to have been blown there by our Maintenance Personnel, from the daily accumulations on the sidewalks there and as you can see, he's quickly running out of room to put it. The day this was taken, our snow totals for the Keweenaw were at 222", with 44" on the ground. In the second photo, the snow bank near the building on the right side of the photo is representative of what we have on the ground, without much added to it.

So, if you've been wondering what all that snow looks like on the ground, now you know. :->

And we complain down south that we don't have
anywhere to put the snow!!

LOL! Mary, you are so tiny. I remember doing that very same thing next to the snow bank in the ShopKo parking lot last April. They were trying to set up for flowers while there was a front end loader trying to get rid of the snow. Too funny!

Oh my word!! That's a LOT of snow, Mary and Lindsay! Puts me in mind of North Dakota!

I don't doubt you guys have humongous piles of snow. After all that's what the UP is known for. And we may be a bit behind but when snow drifts up over my flower bed in front of my living room windows we are impressed too. I can only barely see the top of the patio chairs left outdoors last fall. And the lighted Christmas candy canes are mostly covered. This is astounding for our area which barely sees the ground covered in most years. When I drove for shopping yesterday to Freeport the plowed drifts were very impressive from last weeks blowing and drifting. Expect more of same tonight with a good cover today since late afternoon. Now these are the pics I remember of Hubbell back in the 30's and 40's! This is a pretty good amount for us. I wonder if school has to call off tomorrow again. We've had to miss something like 8 days so far. Really messes up the school year schedule!

Dose models in the UP sure are good looking. Must be the farm living eh.

I believe the western U.P. had a snowstorm in Jan. 1938 where there was a literal tunnel dug through the snow.

I love it!

Mary...were you 8 when that photo was taken? :-)

This is snow as I remember it when I was growing up
in Painesdale -- 75 years ago!!

Hi
If you think that is deep snow, check out the following shot of "Upper Michigan" snow drifts from 1938
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap140122.html

They don't give a specific location in Astronomy Pcture of the Day, but I'm betting someplace in the UP.

Awesome! One of the winters I was in Marquette (around 1980) we had a storm that dropped more than 60 inches of snow over several days with a 60+ mph wind off the lake. The drifts along lakeshore drive were more than 22 feet deep. They had to get one of the big front end loaders from the power plant to dig out the road. Somewhere I have a photo of one of my friends (he is over 6ft tall) standing on the roof of his 3/4 ton pickup truck stretching his arm over his head and his hand was still several feet short of the top of the drift.

I have to laugh when I see a story on the news about a crippling snowstorm moving across the mid-section of the country and dropping 6-8 or 8-10 inches of snow, they think that this is some sort of crises; for us on the Keweenaw Peninsula 8-10 inches is just another winter day and nobody thinks anything of it.

Interesting photo, looks like someone dug out the top of that utility poll...hmmm, electricity + water :-(

I agree with you, Dave. When I was first stationed in Philadelphia, they got a dusting (1") and the entire city was stuck in all these fender benders and they shut the schools down!! Me, I'm blithely driving along wishing for more and marvelling at the poor saps who think they have four-wheel stop. But, at the same time, those 44" on the ground sure are impressive!!

Loved your comment Mikie (Michael DuLong). That's why I visit every day, it puts a smile on my face!!

Guess one has to be born UP there and have it in their blood ~ 3 winters of that type living in North Dakota was enough for me.

You're right, Dave and Karen. Here in northern Connecticut we just got a 10-incher today and half the state was shut down......all schools, state employees, etc. Makes me laugh, too, and kinda (almost!) miss the winters I spent in the U.P.

You have to live in a metropolitan area to understand it's no laughing matter. The extreme...look what happened in Atlanta, GA last week.

I agree, Alex.

And this is what I came back to!!!We have a bit too much snow! Great pics though!

My aunt Marie's door is at the end of that "tunnel" on the right!
Wow! When I walked down that sidewalk last summer it was quite a
warm day. Definitely not white and deep!

I remember that storm of 1938 very well. I was seven years old and did we have fun. Went out the second floor window with a piece of cardboard and slid all the way down to the ground off the porch roof. Mother got tired of us getting a full of snow and then tracking in the front door, up the stairs, into a bedroom, and out the window over and over again. During that storm one of our tall blue spruces blew over the path from the front door to the street. Dad was a tall man and had to duck under the trunk of that tree for days before he had that piece of the tree cut away. Have trouble remembering yesterday but remember that storm and all the fun.

In 2001i was living in the northern tip of the Lower and it
snowed 90 inches in 36 hours. No wind, no drifts, just 90
inches of lake effect. Ten miles north of me the fields were
bare.