Winter warmth good for deer, disastrous for state's Winterfest

Temperatures in the 50s, in Michigan, in January?

El Nino may be to blame for this week's quirky winter warmup in southern regions of the state. But that's little consolation in West Branch, where the annual Winterfest scheduled for next weekend has been put on hold.

"You can't have Winterfest without winter," City Manager Pat McGinnis said yesterday. "El Nino stole our festival."

Temperatures sneaked in the 50s in southern Michigan for a second day yesterday, hitting 50 around noon in Battle Creek, Jackson, Lansing and Flint, 55 in Detroit and 59 in Mount Clemens.

But the spring break missed northern Michigan, where ice, snow and freezing rain coated some roads.

Up to a half-inch of ice fell in the central and eastern Upper Peninsula and parts of the northern Lower Peninsula on Sunday and Monday. The Marquette area got a few inches of snow, the National Weather Service said.

The weird weather statewide happened when a warm blast of air from the South banged up against an Arctic front that just barely kissed northern Michigan, said forecaster Rich Pollman.

"That warm air went up and over that cold air on the surface. And then when the rain moved in, it stayed as rain until it made contact with the surface. You get freezing rain that way," he said.

While the warmth was meddling with winter festivals, it was benefiting the state's wildlife.

"It's effectively shortening the winter, and when winter is shortened, deer, turkeys, and most wild animals have less stress placed upon them," Allegan State Game Area wildlife biologist John Lerg told the Kalamazoo Gazette. "We're having an unbelievably balmy winter."

Whether El Nino is behind it all is uncertain, Pollman said.

El Nino occurs when temperatures rise in equatorial regions of the Pacific Ocean, affecting global atmospheric patterns and weather. It happens every few years, typically peaking in November or December.

"It's hard to pin any one weather system on El Nino," Pollman said. "I'm sure it in some way had a part."

Oakland County parks chief Dan Stencil doesn't mind warmer weather, even if it does close the county's toboggan runs, skiing trails and skating ponds.

"We're dodging rain drops when we should be dodging snow flakes," Stencil told The Oakland Press of Pontiac.

But that won't last forever.

Highs in the southern Lower Peninsula should drop into the 40s today, Pollman said, with snow possible in the coming weekend.

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