News Photo by Steve Schulwitz Only a couple of weeks ago, this statue of two children reading a book outside the Alpena County Library was buried under large snow drifts after a winter storm swept through Alpena. Now, much of the snow has already melted after a period of warm weather arrived.

ALPENA — Alpena received nearly double the amount of snow last month than the long-term average for February, preliminary monthly data from the National Weather Service shows.

For a good portion of the month, barely a day went by that there weren’t at least lake effect flurries that slowly piled up on the ground, and then a large snowstorm on Feb. 15-16 dropped about 13 inches of snow that pushed the snow total well above the norm for the month.

At the end of February, Alpena had received 31.8 inches of snow, which easily blew past the 17-inch long-term average.

In February 2024, Alpena only received 7.2 inches of snow.

The snow in Alpena quickly thawed, however, as a stretch of warm weather rolled into Northeast Michigan toward the end of the month.

On Feb. 22, the National Weather Service said there were 22 inches of snow on the ground in Alpena. At the end of the month, that amount had significantly declined to nine inches and many of the large snow banks scattered throughout Alpena had shrunk.

Temperature-wise, February brought large swings in temperatures. In the middle of the month, arctic air moved in and flooded the area with frigid temperatures. The lowest recorded temperature last month was on Feb. 14 when it was eight degrees below zero, just a day before the large snowstorm.

Later in the month, the weather warmed, and on Feb. 25, the thermometer reached 54 degrees in Alpena and there was a string of four days when it was 40 degrees or warmer.

For the month of February, the average temperature was 20.8 degrees, which was on par with the 20.7-degree long-term average.

With the arrival of March, many people are excited for the arrival of spring. If this month mimics March of last year, there won’t be much additional snow.

In March 2024, Alpena received only 4.6 inches of snow, which was well below the 10.6-inch long-term average for the month.

There is also a chance that March is riddled with snow systems and meets or beats the long-term average.

Harold Dippmen, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gaylord, said he wouldn’t be shocked if there was little snow this month or if there was significant snow and cold.

He said March is a transitional month and it often has bouts of warm weather that make people believe winter is behind them, but also times when it feels like there is no end to the snow and cold in sight.

“We are no stranger to large snow storms in March and then have a significant warm-up right after them,” he said. “March is full of wild weather swings and it can be a wild ride. The weather often goes up and down, and some days, it can feel like spring or early summer, but the next day it can feel like January.”

Dippmen said there is a storm system that will move into northern Michigan in the middle of this week. He said as of Sunday afternoon, it appears Alpena will receive some rain on Tuesday night and into the day on Wednesday. Then, as the temperature drops Wednesday night, the rain could transition to snow, but right now, Alpena only is forecasted to get about an inch.