Winter Storm — Charlevoix County, Michigan

2024-12-11 to 2024-12-12 · Charlevoix County, Michigan

Event narrative

Snowfall totals for Charlevoix county of 12-20 inches, corroborated by cooperative observer reports at East Jordan Wastewater Treatment Plant and Boyne Falls by December 12th of 12.2 and 14.0 inches, respectively. Additional public reports of 15-20 inches in the vicinity of Walloon Lake, which was largely a pivot point for shifting snow bands through the night of the 11th-12th.

Wider weather episode

Strong upper level troughing digging into the region brought another round of Arctic air overtop anomalously warm lake temperatures for mid-December, resulting in another round of impressive lake enhanced snowfall totals across the region. Lighter background flow initially resulted in development of disorganized lake effect/enhanced snow bands, including a couple mesolows...one which crossed northern Lower Michigan during the day on the 11th, and another that developed over the UP along lake aggregate troughing on the 11th, which was ejected SE into the morning of the 12th as a more focused trough axis swung into the region. This was followed by more stereotypical NW flow lake effect for the day on the 12th. This resulted in periods of hazardous travel, and snowfall totals close to 24 inches in 24-48 hours. By 1900EST on the 12th, total snowfall for the 2024-25 winter season at the NWS Gaylord, MI office was 83 inches, over half of the normal snowfall for an entire winter season for the Gaylord area. 81.2 inches of this fell since 0000EST on November 28th (Thanksgiving Day).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1229766. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.