Vickie Fee

Snow on Easter or Spring in da U.P.

Most of you already know (especially if we’re friends on Facebook or friends IRL), that my hometown is Memphis, but I now live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

I often get questions about where I live. Memphis summary: Elvis Presley’s home, Graceland, is there. Half a million people tour it each year. I think everyone should see the Jungle Room once, but once is probably enough. Memphis is separated from Arkansas, in a very friendly way of course, by the muddy Mississippi River. And Memphis has the BEST pork barbecue in the world. I may be biased, but I’m not wrong.

No hockey on Lake Superior now. But, there are still ice floes (likely until June)!

You probably already knew most of that. I get lots more questions about my current home of Marquette, Michigan.

No. Marquette University is not located here. That would be Milwaukee. But both the city and the university are named for the same guy: Father Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary. We have a statue of him, and I would guess the university does, too.

The most asked question I get about the Upper Peninsula is: How do you live with all that snow? (Marquette gets 150 to 200 inches of snow annually. The Keweenaw Peninsula gets up to 300 inches of snow a year. The southern part of the U.P. gets about 50 inches of snow annually. Locals refer to it as “the banana belt.”)

Yoopers know how to deal with snow. The streets are ploughed, the sidewalks are shoveled and road and foot traffic keeps moving. Schools rarely have days off for snow. Generally, schools only close if the windchill reaches -25 degrees F, because it’s too cold for the kids to wait at the bus stop.

For the record, we had a light snow in Marquette overnight into Easter morning. No need to dye the eggs; they were perfect to hide with their natural white shell. We NEVER had snow for Easter when I was growing up. In fact just a forecast of snow in Memphis any time prompts a run on milk, bread, and toilet paper at the supermarket before a flake hits the ground.

Image: Pixabay

A bit of Upper Peninsula trivia: Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake by surface area in the WORLD.

Hubs and I have seen the Northern Lights!

We have moose wandering free. I have spotted moose here, but have never had one walk up onto my porch as author pal Keenan Powell has had happen at her home in Alaska, and documented on Facebook. Moose have never wandered into the parking lot behind our apartment, which is probably just as well.

Measurable snow has been recorded in the U.P. in every month except August. The average daily temperature here in August is 75 degrees. 

We hope summer falls on a Saturday this year! 

33 thoughts on “Snow on Easter or Spring in da U.P.”

  1. Vickie, that last line nearly made me snort coffee. Here in southwestern PA, we don’t have that kind of annual snowfall amounts. Nor do we have moose. But we do have snow in the forecast for today and tomorrow.

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    1. We had snow morning here in Indy, Vickie! Not a lot, just enough to cover the grass (that I was going to cut today) covered in a thin coating of white.

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  2. Vickie, we have a similar story. I have lived in the great state of North Carolina for 45 years (where you can get the best pork barbecue in the world!), but I am a proud graduate of Michigan State University. East Lansing is not the UP to be sure, but I do remember snow on Easter and even on May 1 one year. Today in Wendell, NC, the low temperature will be 45 degrees and it’s raining – a good day to stay indoors.
    Of course, while you’re enjoying those 75 degree summers, we’re baking at 100 degrees +.

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    1. The U.P. summers are heavenly, Tom. I’ve even heard some people complain temps in the seventies are too cool. No one who who has survived sweltering 90+ degree summers with sauna-like humidity will ever say that! When people ask me how I survive the long winters here, I tell them it’s way better than the long Memphis summers!

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  3. Vicky, I live in central Massachusetts. We have had unseasonably warm temps for April so far. It went unto the low 70’s last week. Easter morning was more seasonable. It was 42 when we left for church. As the morning went on it got colder and by noon, it was snowing. It snowed on an off all afternoon. The sun was out most all day, but that white stuff kept flying around. Thankfully it didn’t stick. The latest I remember measurable snow here was May 9, 1977. My daughter was 2 mos old and was quite cranky that day. I put her in her swing chair in front of the window and she watched the flakes come down. It calmed her down. Snow can be great! We don’t have many moose at least we have never had one here in our yard. I wish there was a way I could post a picture of my break dancing black bear from a few years ago. She was great! Happy Easter!
    Carol

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    1. It’s too bad the little ones missed out on Easter egg hunts because of the snow. We hid Easter eggs in the house. Few times growing up because of rain! I would love to see a breakdancing bear — from a safe distance!

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  4. Vickie.
    Thank you for the geography lesson and snow memories.
    I get the weather. Totally. I currently live outside of DC, where the hints of a storm will lead to a panic at the grocery store, and the first snowflake hitting the ground closes the schools. Personally, I think the schools close so often around here because every other family has a lawyer in it, and they’ll sue the school if anybody gets hurt in the snow or ice.
    But I have lived in my fair share of places, with all kinds of different weather.
    I’ve lived as far east as Virginia Beach, as far west as Los Angeles, as far south as San Antonio, and as far north as Fairbanks, Alaska. And yes, I have lived in Denver as well so the middle of the country is covered too.
    And with all those places, I think I’ve hit about every Mother Nature disaster as well, except for the volcano eruption (I wasn’t living in Seattle when Mount St Helen erupted big time).

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    1. Hestia, as long as there’s Easter candy, the weather for Easter isn’t that important to me. I’d personally prefer snow to rain. I may watch Easter Parade this evening!

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  5. Yikes! And now you know why Robin and I high-tail it to Hawai’i every fall; it’s too darn cold here in California! (I would so not do well in the U.P. for very long.) But the Aurora sure is beautiful….

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    2. The Aurora is predicted to be more active this year! Leslie, if California gets too cold for you in the winter, you probably wouldn’t enjoy our summers in the Yoop!

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  6. When I was growing up in Colorado, Easter meant church, then family photos in the park, then back home for brunch, games, then a big dinner. One year it snowed and my mom got so mad when my teenage brother got called into work at this tourist place near Pikes Peak called Seven Falls. It’s really just one enormous waterfall, but the rock formations make it look like seven different ones. It’s absolutely gorgeous there and you can climb the 224 steps up to the top. He got called in to sweep them off.

    As for mooseseses, we had a family of three stroll through my suburban CO neighborhood a couple years ago. They start following water and forget to turn around when they get to the highway!

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    1. You clearly live in a good place for you, Mark. But, if you have a chance to visit the U.P. come on up! I think you’d enjoy the hiking and outdoors activities here!

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    1. Milwaukee is a nice town. I like driving the flyover through downtown. There are so many church steeples scattered on the skyline. And it’s nice to sit outdoors at some of the many restaurants and brew pubs on the river!

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  10. Maybe this isn’t a good thing to say, Vickie, but I always think of you when I see eastward-heading storms on the nightly news. I know we’ll get exactly what you guys had here in NH within 24 hours. But hey, anytime you want to visit, you won’t need to pack anything new for the trip. We seem to have likeminded moose as well. I know they’re out there, but I’ve only had 2 glimpses since we moved here 14 years ago (and one of those was technically on the Maine Turnpike). Laughing about the snow on Easter, b/c every year I insist it never snows that late, and then my husband rolls his eyes and shows me a photo from last year. Bring on Black Fly Season (they’re already lurking)!

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  11. Having grown up in Buffalo, the snow thing hits home. Buffalo’s annual average snowfall is 84.8″. One year, they hit that in three days – 2017’s Snowmageddon of November. I never got to wear those cute Easter dresses growing up. Or if I did, I had to wear my winter coat over them (just as you had to make sure your Halloween costume fit over your winter gear). Outdoor egg hunts? Too cold.

    My sister said there was a light dusting of snow on Easter morning this year although it melted fairly quickly.

    And I’ve been to Marquette University. Yes, they have a statue. LOL

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  13. Hi Vickie, I loved reading about your experiences in the U.P.! I now live in TX but grew up in Lower Michigan. Before moving to TX, however, I lived in Marquette (where I earned my teaching cert.) and then taught in Calumet/Laurium and finally in Sault Ste. Marie. I loved living there (although winters did get long:) and miss the scenic wonders of Michigan every single day.

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  14. Love this, Vickie!! We had snow for Easter this year, as well. Merry Easter!

    We don’t get the near the quantity that you do, but that doesn’t stop me from complaining. As far as I’m concerned, it’s six months of winter and three months of cold weather!

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