Midwest Winter Storm Iona Smashed Snow Records In Michigan, Wisconsin, With Blizzard Conditions (RECAP)

Snow Drifts Nearly Encase House

Winter Storm Iona was a record-smashing snowstorm in parts of Michigan and Wisconsin, with feet of snow and blizzard conditions that extended over several states as far west as South Dakota and Nebraska.

The Notables

Iona dumped 36.3 inches of snow at the National Weather Service forecast office just outside of Marquette, Michigan, an all-time two-day snowstorm record, there, in records dating to 1959.

Lingering lake-enhanced snow pumped storm totals up to 52 inches in the higher terrain of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Green Bay, Wisconsin, picked up 26.6 inches of snow in the blizzard, their heaviest snowstorm since their record March 1-2, 1888 storm dumped 29 inches on the city. Wind gusts up to 60 mph in nearby De Pere lead to blizzard conditions. The Weather Channel meteorologist Stephanie Abrams covered the storm from Green Bay.

Eighteen locations in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan reported 30 inches of snow from the storm. That included Menominee, Michigan (31 inches), Wausau, Wisconsin (30.9 inches) and three locations on Wisconsin's Door County Peninsula, lead by Sturgeon Bay (33.2 inches).

Wausau, Wisconsin, smashed its all-time record snowiest single day in 130 years on March 15, with 23.4 inches measured, according to the National Weather Service.

Other Wisconsin snowstorm records were set in Appleton (27 inches), Marshfield (21.5 inches), Oshkosh (16 inches) and Stevens Point (24 inches).

Door County was just one of 14 counties across northern Wisconsin and the U.P. of Michigan which reported snowfall totals that appeared to have exceeded existing 2-day or 3-day snowstorm county records. Which of those reports will be accepted as official records will likely be determined by the National Weather Service in the coming days or weeks.

Other Wows In The Storm

Heavy snow combining with strong winds whipped drifts up to 10 feet high in Ephraim and north of Iola, Wisconsin.

Some drifts in the U.P. of Michigan were up to the roofs of homes, as the post below shows.

Blizzard conditions were also reported in parts of southern Wisconsin, southern Minnesota and Iowa.

Sections of Interstates 35, 80 and 90 were shut down in southern Minnesota and Iowa, while travel was not advised on many roads in eastern, northeastern and western Wisconsin, including stretches of Interstates 41 and 43 in the Fox Valley.

If that wasn't enough, a part of northern Lower Michigan picked up damaging accumulations of freezing rain up to an inch. Tree damage and power outages were reported from Cadillac to Alpena, Michigan.

Other Storm Totals

Iona produced a foot or more of snow in parts of Montana, the Black Hills of South Dakota, then from southern Minnesota across northern Wisconsin into northern Michigan.

The Twin Cities metro picked up 7 to 14 inches of snow. Much of southeast Wisconsin picked up 6 to 10 inches, including Madison and the Milwaukee suburbs. Some 6 to 8 inch totals were reported in the Mississippi Valley, including Davenport, Iowa.

Lighter accumulations generally in the 1- to 3-inch range were reported in parts of Chicagoland, Kansas city and Omaha.

In the East, some amounts of 6 inches or more were reported in the Appalachians, and 1 to 2 inches of snow even dusted parts of northern Alabama as cold air sliced in.

Winds gusted as high as 69 mph near Grand Marais, Michigan, 68 mph near Gruver, Iowa, and 62 mph near DeSoto, Illinois.

Jonathan Erdman is a senior meteorologist at weather.com and has been covering national and international weather since 1996. Extreme and bizarre weather are his favorite topics. Reach out to him on Bluesky, X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook.