Karl Bohnak

We are now experiencing more typical May weather after the surge of summer last week. The six-day stretch from last Monday, May 9 through Saturday, May 14 was 17.8 degrees above average at the National Weather Service (NWS) site near Negaunee.

It included the 2nd earliest high temperature of 90 or above which occurred Friday (The earliest 90 at the NWS was a record-smashing 92 degrees set on April 22, 1980.) The average high is now in the mid-60s, with the average low in the lower 40s.

Averages aside, over these next five days it has been as warm as 93 at the NWS. That record high was set on May 22, 1964. It hit 98 in Marquette on the same day.

Looking way back, there was a snowstorm on May 23-24, 1893. A total of 10 inches of snow fell in Marquette.

The storm just brushed the Copper Country. Houghton received only two-tenths of an inch on May 23, 1893. The odd thing about this unusually late snowfall is that the very next year — 1894 — there was 4.1 inches of snow in Marquette on May 27!

No outstanding weather events are anticipated over the next several days.

It will be quite cool over the weekend as an upper-air trough moves over the U.P. Highs will struggle to make it to 50 over the north near Lake Superior with 50s in the south. There may be some scattered showers, though significant rain is not expected.

High pressure will lead to quiet, cool weather early next week while the next low-pressure system could bring U.P.-wide rainfall about mid-week.