MARQUETTE — Schools from Houghton to Newberry were closed or delayed Monday as freezing rain overnight turned roads into icy menaces across the Upper Peninsula.

“The Marquette area took the brunt of the icy conditions,” National Weather Service Negaunee meteorologist Matt Zika said.

The slippery road conditions resulted when warmer air moved into the area overnight and produced the rain.

“It’s been so cold here the last six or seven weeks. The ground was extremely cold so despite air temperatures in the low to mid-30s, as rain was falling, the ground was cold so it caused a glaze of ice to form,” Zika said.

Although certainly dangerous, freezing rain is not the same as an ice storm.

“Technically with an ice storm you see a quarter of an inch of icing on things. There wasn’t that much this time around, probably less than five-hundredths of an inch or so of ice accumulation, but the fact that it glazed over everything is what made it so treacherous,” Zika said.

The hazardous driving conditions included black ice on roadways, a phenomenon Zika explained.

“When you experience a lot of melt-off like we’re seeing today and then when you go into the overnight hours where temperatures fall back below freezing, it allows that water to refreeze, so sometimes you can’t tell if it’s wet or ice so it catches people by surprise when they encounter the slippery conditions again,” he said.

What began as an icy morning actually turned out to be the warmest day the U.P. has experienced since the middle of November, with temperatures in the 50s, according to Zika.

Although the weather will be warmer throughout the rest of the week than we’ve experienced as of late, Monday’s spring-like temperatures are not to be expected.

“Temperatures will be a little bit above normal with highs in the 30s, but it won’t be 50 degrees now for a while,” Zika said.