Snow on Lake Michigan

If I told you about a snowstorm on Lake Michigan, you would very likely say, “Ok…what is so unusual about that?” Most often, you would be right. Snow squalls and icing on Lake Michigan, as well as the other Great Lakes is a common event every Winter. The Great Lakes generally attract the snow due to the fact that they tend to have almost their own weather patterns. It’s a phenomenon called lake-effect snow. “Lake-effect snow is produced during cooler atmospheric conditions when a cold air mass moves across long expanses of warmer lake water. The lower layer of air, heated by the lake water, picks up water vapor from the lake and rises through colder air. The vapor then freezes and is deposited on the leeward (downwind) shores.” Anyone who has lived near the Great Lakes, knows that “lake-effect snow” usually means much deeper accumulations and colder weather than many other places in the United States. Amazingly, the people of the Great Lakes region usually just embrace the weather and get out there to have fun, even holding festivals from time to time. My sister, Cheryl Masterson and I were for a short time in our childhood and got to attend the ice festivals while living in Superior, Wisconsin. While we don’t remember much of it, the pictures our parents took are a nice memory for us, even if it is one that we only heard about from our parents. Cheryl might remember those things, but I was pretty young at the time.

Of course, most of us have seen weather events that are out of the normal everyday events. It can happen just about anywhere in the world, and when it does, you find yourself thinking, “Well, that was odd!!” I remember in 1975 on the 4th of July (easily remembered because my daughter, Corrie Petersen was born on June 30, and so we were at home that July 4th) that for a brief time, it snowed in Casper, Wyoming. It was an odd enough event for it to stick in my mind. Nevertheless, weather phenomena are possible in any location in the world, at any time of the year.

That fact became abundantly clear in 1882, when another remarkable event occurred. This one on Lake Michigan…was an August snowstorm. According to the available reports, a thick cloud burst over the decks of a ship traveling on the lake, and it blanketed them with snow and slush. The snow and slush reached an accumulated depth of six inches. The ship wasn’t the only August snow location that day either. In addition, snow showers were observed at shore points that same day. It was quite an unexpected weather phenomenon for the summer, and especially for August, which tends to be typically one of the hottest months of the year, coming in just slightly below July in Michigan. While it can happen, most snow and ice come in the depths of the winter. Still, I’ll bet it was an event the crew of that ship talked about for a long time and remembered for the rest of their lives.