Yooper Facts

It is still snowing.  The front end loader just left so I can get out of my driveway if I need to.  Although the snow started as small light flakes yesterday, it turned to heavy wet snow over night.  Even with condensing due to the high water content of the snow, it has piled up 6-7 inches so far.  Once the system snow moves east, lake-effect snow will take over through Wednesday.  We are expected to get well over a foot of snow by the time this storm event is over.

When I was researching the current weather, I came across the web page http://yoopersteez.com/list-of-upper-peninsula-facts .   For today's posting, I decided to include some of the facts.

• There are 8.8 million acres of forest in the Upper Peninsula, out of a total of 10.5 million, making 84% of the Upper Peninsula covered by forest.

 

• The least snowfall in the Keweenaw in one year is 81 inches, which fell in the winter of 1930-1931.
• The most snowfall in the Keweenaw in one year is 356 inches, which fell in the winter of 1978-1979.
• Copper Harbor is the farthest town from an Interstate Highway (251 miles) in the continental United States.

• It is 629 highway miles from Ironwood, MI to Lambertville, MI, the two furthest corners you can drive to in Michigan.
• Every Upper Peninsula zip code starts with 49---
• Tahquamenon Falls is the third most voluminous waterfall east of the Mississippi River, after Niagara Falls and Cohoes Falls
• The word Yooper was first published in 1979
• There are three public universities: Lake Superior State University founded in 1946, Northern Michigan University founded in 1899, and Michigan Technological University founded in 1885
• The four bordering counties of Wisconsin (Gogebic, Iron, Dickinson, Menominee) are in Central Time while the remaining 11 counties are  Eastern Time

• The maximum north-south distance is nearly 125 miles
• The maximum east-west distance is nearly 320 miles
• There are 1,700 miles of Great Lakes shoreline in the U.P.
• Lake Gogebic is the largest inland lake, with over 13,000 acres of surfaces area

• Construction for the Soo Locks began in 1837 and it opened in 1855

• There are over 3,000 miles of groomed snowmobile trails, that's the equivalent of snowmobiling from Orlando to Seattle
• There are nearly 400 species of birds in the Upper Peninsula
• Mount Arvon is the highest peak in the Upper Peninsula and Michigan
• The Upper Peninsula is home to about 301,361 Yoopers (2010 Census)
• Lake Superior has 917 miles of shoreline along the Upper Peninsula
• 906 is the one and only area code
• Marquette is the largest city with about 19,600 people
• Marquette County has the largest population with about 67,077 people (2010 Census)
• Keweenaw County has the smallest population with about 2,156 people (2010 Census)
• The Upper Peninsula is 3.16% of the Michigan population, but makes up 29% of the state's landmass
• There are 89 known species of fish in Lake Superior
• Lake Michigan is the size of West Virginia
• Lake Superior is the size of South Carolina
• The Seney Stretch is the longest curveless section of highway in Michigan, and one of the longest straight stretches of curveless highway east of the Mississippi River
• 906 is the 6th largest area code east of the Mississippi River
• In 1910, Houghton County was home to more than 88,000 people. That is the record for the highest population of any county in the Upper Peninsula