Winter Storm — Otsego, Michigan

2024-12-01 to 2024-12-02 · Otsego, Michigan

Event narrative

Storm total ending 1300EST December 2 of 46.7 inches 6 miles SSW of Gaylord, MI. Areas east of this toward Michaywe and west toward Lake Manuka reported in excess of 2-3 feet of snow through the event. NWS Employee 4 miles ESE of Elmira, MI reported a storm total of 46 inches ending 0900EST December 2. By 1300EST on the 1st, 39.6 inches of snow had fallen at this location, with 8 inches alone in the previous 24 hours.

Wider weather episode

Persistent and deep cyclonic flow bringing unseasonably cold weather overtop unusually warm lake surface temperatures continued to result in record-breaking lake effect snow through the remainder of the Thanksgiving weekend into December 1-2. This brought periods of whiteout conditions and hazardous travel conditions as snow bands shifted back and forth over the region. Snow under these most intense bands quickly accumulated to the tune of 1-3 inches per hour, even on main thoroughfares including I-75...resulting in numerous accidents. Widespread 4-day snowfall totals of 2-4 feet in NW/WNW flow snowband areas of NW Lower and eastern Upper Michigan. Highest reported storm total snowfall from trained snowfall observers was 46.7 inches 6 miles SSW of Gaylord, MI, ending 1300EST December 2. This event broke all-time snowfall records for 1-day, 2-day, and 3-day snowfall totals for the Gaylord area. Reliable snowfall records for the Gaylord, MI area go back to 1940. For the Sault Ste. Marie, MI area, this was the 3rd highest snowfall event on record, with a storm total of 29.7 inches from 0000EST Thanksgiving morning through December 2, trailing behind the December 1995 4-day lake effect event, and Christmas blizzard 2022 event.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1229709. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.