Winter Storm — Charlevoix County, Michigan

2024-12-01 to 2024-12-02 · Charlevoix County, Michigan

Event narrative

Twenty-four hour total of 13.8 inches measured at East Jordan Wastewater Treatment Plant ending on the morning of the 30th, with storm totals through December 2nd of 21.9 inches. As an example of lake effect snowfall gradients, the cooperative observer 2 miles NW of East Jordan received only 10.2 inches through the entire 72+hour event ending the morning of December 2nd. Twenty-four hour snowfall of 8 inches ending on the morning of the 30th, from Boyne Falls cooperative observer. Storm total for this location through December 2 of 15.0 inches. Event totals as high as 16 to 17 inches in the Boyne Falls area by the morning of the 30th per social media reports...with higher totals likely elsewhere in the county.

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 1229711. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.