Spring, Summer, and Fall in Big Snow Country

MAY 10 THROUGH OCTOBER 10: WELCOME TO PARIS OR LONDON BUT WITHOUT THE HIGH EXPENSE AND THE FUNNY ACCENTS AND LANGUAGE
The weather in general and the temperatures specifically are much more livable in Big Snow Country than they are in the rest of the Midwest and beyond between mid May and mid October. Highs most days during these five months are between 57 and 85 and lows range from 39 to 63 during most days these five months.

For the three warmest of all months of June, July, and August, the average high is about 73 and the average low is about 53 in Big Snow Country.

Unless you like hot weather, you are going to find the four months from May 25 until September 25 to be as close to perfect as you can get within the United States. To say that temperatures are pleasant would be an understatement.

The five months of warmer weather are very much like the warmer weather in Ireland, Britain, Germany, and northern France. NO AIR CONDITIONING is needed, and you can believe it or not even get by without a fan in the window if you can live with an occasional 80-85 degrees reading in your house. The fact that air conditioning is totally unnecessary is a big and growing bigger every year savings of money.

Between mid May and mid September, there are a very small number of thunderstorms that are mostly laughably mild storms compared to the rest of the Midwest. Lake Superior has the effect of reducing severe thunderstorms to very mild storms. Any hail is very small, maximum wind gusts are less than 40 mph, and the tornado threat is virtually non-existant.

During the other seven months, there is a long winter bookmarked by two very cool periods where fortunately the temperature is usually a little too warm for snow. Before winter starts in mid November and after most true winter weather is over with in mid March, there are two relatively short seasons (fall and spring) that are of course substantially cooler than what most people in the USA are used to.

FALL: OCTOBER 1-NOVEMBER 20
September if you are lucky is an extra month of summer. More commonly, September ends up being a fall type month similar to October in Chicago.

After September highs range from the high fifties to the low 70's most days, a very cool fall arrives sometime in early October, with high temperatures now generally ranging from the high 30's to the high 50's. In October, the large amount of sunshine of the five warmest months of the year (May-September) gives way to an increasing number of mostly cloudy days with occasional light rain showers. October 1-November 20 low temperatures normally range from the mid 20's to the mid 40's.

Most but not all of the fall precipitation is rain. October averages out to 4 inches of snow, but in many years there is only a trace to an inch of snow during October. The first half of November averages out to about 7-8 inches of snow.

Generally, the roads don't need any plowing until sometime between November 10 and November 20. Little if any snow ever accumulates on the roads until starting in mid November. Heavy road accumulations don't generally occur until at least the last week of November.

Any small amount of snow that accumulates on the grass prior to November 10 does melt completely, although not necessarily in only one day if there is heavy cloud cover and temperatures hovering around 40 degrees. Almost all October precipitation is rain, while November transitions from rain to snow. Rain is par for the course up until about November 12, when snow becomes the norm.

We are now jumping past winter and moving on to spring. Visit here for the article about the winter weather.

SPRING: MARCH 20--MAY 10
Unlike in November, when actual snow storms are uncommon, and so when most of the snow is lake effect, in March and early April, at least half of any snow is due to actual snow storms, storms that are spring rain storms and often flood causing rain storms farther south in the Midwest. Spring highs range from the high 30’s to the low 60’s and spring lows generally range from the low 20’s to the mid 40’s.

Although the spring can have several days of cloudy weather in a row, at least within 25 miles of Lake Superior, there are more sunny days in the spring than the fall, which tends to get stuck in even longer stretches of cloudy but very light precipitation weather. The difference between the high and low temperatures is about 5 degrees more in the spring than it is in the fall, due to greater daylight and greater sunshine..

From March 20 until April 25, even though it is now going up to well above freezing during the day (to 40 to 55 degrees) it can sometimes seem like it is still winter, because it can still be below freezing at night, because there can still be snow on the ground (and there will definitely still be plowed snow piles) and because it can take until the end of April before most of the snow is gone. Moreover, although most snow falls between November 20 and March 20, there is in most years some kind of a spring snowstorm between March 20 and April 20.

DAILY AVERAGES AT HOUGHTON-HANCOCK
You can see the exact average highs and lows for Houghton-Hancock for every day of the year. You will find them here.