Winter Storm Brings Heavy Snowfall To Northern Wisconsin

A winter storm is bringing heavy, wet snow to the south shore of Lake Superior and areas further inland.

The winter storm warning currently in effect in northern Wisconsin will last until noon on Tuesday, though the heaviest snow is expected on Monday afternoon through the evening. Meteorologists expect the storm to bring 15 to 20 inches to most of region.

Carol Christenson, the warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service Office in Duluth, said there’s no doubt winter is here: “The cars are covered and there go the plows,” she said.

Christenson said the storm will rival last year’s first snowfall in December.

“We had a couple rounds of snow that dropped over 15 inches of snow over northern Wisconsin. We had almost 19 inches in Cornucopia, 18 inches in Poplar, 9 to 10 inches in Grantsburg and the Mercer areas,” she said.

She said that means people may want to revise their travel plans for Monday.

“Travel plans, especially for later on this evening and tonight into tomorrow, you may want to get your travel done as soon as you can or postpone,” she said.

Christenson said heavy winds are expected to make travel worse with dangerously low visibility on the roads. She ultimately advised people to get home early and stay there.

Emmer Shields, the Ashland County highway commissioner, said the county was way over budget coming into this winter, but that it received $170,000 in state emergency funds to keep Wisconsin highways clear. He said it’s been a grind for his employees.

“They reach kind of a burnout point at the end of the year. We don’t have two shifts. We don’t have extra people. So, it can get pretty rough in a long season like we had last year,” he said.

Xcel Energy Spokeswoman Liz Wolf Green said that the company has staff on call in case any outages occur for the 250,000 customers they provide with electricity.

“I see just one outage in our entire service territory,” she said. “It’s one customer up in Ashland. So far, we’re doing really good.”

Wolf Green said they had some larger outages last winter due to heavy, wet snow. But, she said, one bright spot is that they expect natural gas costs to be 16 to 18 percent lower with warmer temperatures this winter.

As the storm wraps up, Christenson says colder weather will follow with highs in the lower 20s for the region.

Editor’s Note: This story is being updated as Wisconsin Public Radio learns more information.