Midwesterners Dig Out Parkas as Snow Makes Wintry Encore
Residents of Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan traded swimsuits and garden hoes for parkas and snow shovels Thursday as a freak storm brought back winter in May.
The spring shocker was worst in Wisconsin, where snowfall of up to 8 inches shattered records for late-season snow.
Some communities had to reassemble snowplows already stored for the season. Residents who had broken out the lawn furniture and headed for the beach just two days before, when temperatures reached the 70s and 80s, dug their coats out of mothballs.
In Marquette, Mich., police officer Ron Michelson said: “I had my lounge out. It’s still sitting on the porch getting full of snow.”
The Wisconsin storm, accompanied by wind up to 30 m.p.h., was blamed for hundreds of accidents and two traffic deaths. Downed power lines caused blackouts in more than 40,000 homes.
Weather service specialist Edmond Lowe said the snow broke a 5-inch record that had stood since April 30, 1907. The latest spring snow ever in Wisconsin was May 31, 1889.
In Hartford, a city of 7,000, Mayor Dean Kirley declared a state of emergency, ordering residents off streets and advising businesses and schools to close.
In Illinois, more than 4 inches of snow fell Wednesday night and Thursday morning on Chicago’s northwest suburbs.
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