Karl Bohnak, Journal contributor

Time keeps churning on, as we’ve reached the final stretch of September 2022. The month continued very warm through early this week and then the coolest air mass this fall blew in on gusty northwesterly winds. The warm and cool periods this month shared one thing in common–dry weather. Rainfall is over an inch below average through the first three weeks of September.

September and October are usually the wettest months of the year. Both months average nearly four inches of precipitation at the National Weather Service near Negaunee. A little less rain falls in the southern U.P. cities of Iron Mountain and Escanaba as well as along the Lake Superior shore in Marquette. But looking back to the late 19th century, the Queen City by the lake had one of its most extreme rainfall events in late September.

“The flood-gates of heaven were opened” as nearly four-and-a-half inches of rain poured down on Marquette September 29, 1881. The local paper declared it the “severest rainstorm…within the memory of the oldest inhabitants.” The storm contributed to a September 1881 rain total of 12.73 inches–the wettest month in the area’s history.

No floods are on the way, but there should be some off and on showers through the weekend With abundant cloud cover, high temperatures should be somewhat below normal. Average highs this period are in the low to mid 60s.

Karl’s 5-day forecast

Sat:

55 45

Showers

Sun:

57 48

Showers

Mon:

57 43

Partly cloudy

Tues:

53 40

Partly cloudy

Wed:

59 41

Mostly sunny