HOLLY, Mich. (AP) - As much as 9.3 inches of snow fell Wednesday in winter-weary southern Michigan, leaving roads slippery and leading to spin-outs and slide-off crashes as weather disrupted the morning commute and closed hundreds of schools.
The storm had passed out of the state by Wednesday evening after dumping snow in wide areas of the southern and central Lower Peninsula.
The National Weather Service reported 9.3 inches of accumulation in Holly, northwest of Detroit, while the northeastern Detroit suburb of Mount Clemens had 8.9 inches. The Detroit Metropolitan Airport saw 6.5 inches of snow, bringing the area within 3 inches of breaking a seasonal snowfall total of 93.6 inches set in 1880-1881, the weather service said.
At Ann Arbor, a 5.8-inch snowfall pushed the season’s total to 92.1 inches, breaking the previous record of 89.8 inches, University of Michigan meteorologist Dennis F. Kahlbaum told the Detroit Free Press.
The northern part of the state mostly avoided Michigan’s most recent brush with winter weather, and the snowfall was tapering in the south by late afternoon.
State temperatures that pushed as high as the 50s on Tuesday were down to the 20s or single digits by Wednesday evening.
The weather service said that Iron Mountain in the Upper Peninsula set a record for the lowest average temperature for December-February of 7.2 degrees. The previous record was 8.7 degrees in 1903-1904.
Craig Moilanen was ambivalent about the latest onslaught. The carpenter from the Detroit suburb of Farmington Hills said the winter hasn’t “bothered him that much” so far, but that he cannot take much more.
Moilanen said he often works outside and needs to push the snow aside and lay tarps over work in progress. He also has a long driveway and “not the best snow blower in the world,” so he’s had a lot of early-morning struggles to clear Mother Nature’s seasonal deliveries.
“That’s been getting old,” he said.
AAA Michigan has helped more than 900 drivers, mostly in southeastern Michigan, due to rear-end collisions, cars in ditches and other snow-related mishaps, spokeswoman Nancy Cain said.
“Very busy but certainly not a record,” she said.
Frigid temperatures were expected to follow the latest storm, with readings dropping below zero late Wednesday or early Thursday, the weather service said.
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