These pedestrians in Marquette's downtown bundle up to fight the cold Thursday morning. (Journal photo by Antonio Anderson

MARQUETTE– The Upper Peninsula was beset with below freezing temperatures Monday night and into Tuesday, with the warmest being in the tens and the lowest nearly reaching a -20 windchill. Meteorologist Ben Warren from the National Weather Service station in Negaunee Township said the area and region should expect the deep freeze to linger.

“Behind the bigger Thanksgiving snow storm, we have had this northwest flow from the upper atmosphere, this colder pattern is set to persist at least for the next week here,” Warren said. “The Climate Prediction Center has a favorable probability of this colder weather for the rest of the month.”

The cold weather saw the village of Baraga and a few other towns situated on the Lake Superior shoreline hovering around the 10s for temperature, but the interior of the U.P. had windchills down to the negative teens with Ironwood being the coldest with -18.

Normally the polar vortex brings this type of cold, but Warren is unsure if that is what’s causing this.

“The polar vortex is this big area of low pressure that is sitting out in the Arctic circle, sometimes it comes down to the lower 48 and gives us a big cold,” Warren said. “We are definitely in this colder pressure coming from Canada, but I can’t say for certain if it’s from the polar vortex, but we are expecting the cold to continue.”

Antonio Anderson can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. His email address is aanderson@miningjournal.net.