Karl Bohnak, Journal contributor

What a wild period of weather this past week! Here in Upper Michigan, on the cold side of last weekend’s storm, there was heavy snow. Folks in the southern Midwest, on the warm side, were hit with deadly tornadoes. Then, act two roared up from the southwest Wednesday putting us in the warm sector. Finally, as the powerful low-pressure pulled away, strong winds brought in colder air.

It will be colder this next week, but not nearly as cold as it can get just before Christmas. The greatest pre-Christmas cold wave in modern times occurred in 1983. Iron Mountain residents endured record lows of 17 below zero, minus 22 and 23 below December 18-20. Even, Houghton-Hancock, moderated by exposure to Lake Superior, had record lows of 9 and 10 below zero on December 19 and 20. The National Weather Service (NWS) near Negaunee recorded a December record low of -28 on December 20, while Ironwood crashed to an all-time December low of 36 degrees below zero!

The cold spell next week will only see temperatures cool close to mid-December averages. In fact, the five-day period from Saturday through Wednesday will likely be a couple of degrees above average. Very cold air is building over northwestern North America, but flow is not right for an arctic blast here–yet. As for snow, no major storms are foreseen in the run-up to Christmas. There may be some area-wide light snow Saturday with the usual light lake-effect in the north.

Karl’s 5-day forecast

Sat 28/13

Sun 25/11

Mon 35/15

Tue 29/20

Wed 27/16