Many cities and townships were either closed or had amended hours on Tuesday, and all of the area schools remained closed. Snow drifts are immense in the wake of the blizzard and Yoopers were out in full force to snowblow and shovel out cars, driveways and sidewalks.

“We haven’t been out really long because our neighbor drives a commercial plow,” said Marquette resident Cathy Seblonka from her snowy driveway. “He (plowed) his, and he (plowed) a bunch of ours.”

Seblonka has been living in Marquette for 35 years, but said she’s never seen this much snow. “It’s better than ice and hurricane,” she said.

“I’m about to turn 72 and I’ve never seen a storm like this one,” said another Marquette shoveler.

A plow turns onto Washington Street on Monday. (Journal photo by Annie Lippert)

Many people were out helping their neighbors shovel out driveways and push cars through plowed-in intersections.

Meteorologist Taylor Andrew Prislovsky from the National Weather Service’s Marquette County office says that this storm broke several records.

“At the office here (in Negaunee Township) we measured 37.6 inches,” said Prislovsky. “The highest so far has been around 39 inches in the South East of Mount Arvon, and 43 inches in Herman.

For Marquette, in the city itself it looks like there’s at least 14 inches, potentially up to 18 inches. That might be a bit more on the conservative side for snowfall.” Snowfall in the city of Marquette is measured directly off of the lakeshore.

“The (snowfall) numbers themselves were a bit on the lower side than predicted,” said Prislovsky, little consolation for people with drifts halfway up their doorways.

Marquette City Hall seen here nearly covered on Tuesday. (Journal photo by Annie Lippert)

“We actually did hit the 2-day snowfall record up here at the office,” said Prislovsky. At the National Weather Service’s Marquette County office in Negaunee Township, 36.3 inches of snow was measured over March 15th and 16th. That broke the previous all-time record of 31.9 inches, which was set over the course of March 13th and 14th back in 1997.

“We also broke the record precipitation amount for a daily precipitation record on both the 15th and the 16th, as well as the daily snowfall record for those dates,” said Prislovsky.

On March 15, recorded snowfall of 14.6 inches beat the previous record of 12.8 inches set in 2002, and for March 16, recorded snowfall of 21.7 inches broke the old record of only 7.7 inches set in 2013.

In regard to liquid equivalents, on the 15th a new record of 2.27 inches broke the old record of 1.3 inches set in 2002, and on the 16th a new record of 1.72 inches broke the old record of 1.34 inches set in 2016.

What is it about the beginning of spring that seems to bring these massive snow accumulations?

“As we start to warm up in the spring, we get some more warm air trying to intrude farther and farther north,” said Prislovsky. “We’re typically a lot colder during winter and spring months here, so we get a lot more low pressure systems.”

Don’t put away your shovels.

Annie Lippert can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 550. Her email address is alippert@miningjournal.net.