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National Weather Service
Marquette County Tornado
This tree snapped along the second tornado's path, in Ely Township, Michigan.
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National Weather Service
Marquette County Tornado
This tree was felled by the second tornado, near west Ely Township, Michigan.
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National Weather Service
Marquette County Tornado
An uprooted tree near west Ely Township, Michigan, along the second tornado's path.
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National Weather Service
Marquette County Tornado
Downed trees near west Ely Township, Michigan.
Tornadoes touch down in Marquette County
No one was injured when two tornadoes struck rural Marquette County on Tuesday.
With peak winds of about 90 mph, the tornadoes reached EF-1, the “moderate” classification. (EF-5 is the most powerful rating for tornadoes.) The National Weather Service says the combined path of the tornadoes was about 11 miles. The first touched down 4 miles west-northwest of Republic, the second 7 miles southwest of Greenwood Reservoir, sputtering out about 5 miles from Ishpeming.
Because the tornadoes hit a rural area, it was the woods, not homes, that took the damage. “Trees snapped or uprooted were between one foot and two feet in diameter,” says the National Weather Service’s Marquette office.
Tornadoes certainly aren’t common in the Lake Superior region, but they’re not unheard of. Multiple waterspouts – essentially tornadoes over water – have been spotted in recent years near Duluth and in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and an August 1969 storm spawned a twister in Two Harbors, Minnesota.
+ Coverage from WJMN’s Wil Hunter, who talked to a few locals about their close calls with the storm, and from WLUC, which has more video of the damage.
Piping plover seen in Duluth
John Myers, Duluth News Tribune:
For the second time in as many years an endangered piping plover has shown up on Duluth's Park Point beach, lending hope that the little shorebird might nest on Minnesota's side of Lake Superior for the first time in decades.
The female plover has been seen just north of the beach house. The St. Louis River Alliance, which runs a piping plover monitoring program, asks that beachgoers please heed the signs posted in the area and avoid that part of the beach. Keep dogs on their leashes, too, so the bird doesn’t get spooked.
Madeline Island installs solar array
An 18-kilowatt solar power system will provide an independent source of electricity for the library and medical clinic in La Pointe, Wisconsin. Installed this spring, it’s the first step in a plan to develop a microgrid for Madeline Island.
Outages within the current power grid can be particularly troublesome for the island, with its limited accessibility from the mainland, and island-generated power would provide a critical supplement and backup.
Adds the Madeline Island Chamber of Commerce, “The ground-mounted racking will be adjustable so the angle of the collectors will be changed by Town staff once in the spring and again in the fall. The ability to adjust the collectors close to the optimal angle of perpendicular to the sun at noon will increase the efficiency of the array by up to 15 percent.”
+ On the mainland, Bayfield Electric Cooperative is building a community solar garden, with construction to start this summer, reports Hope McLeod in the Bayfield County Journal.
New artesian well in Ashland: Drilled at Maslowski Beach, the well is currently pumping out 150 gallons per minute. A foundation and well shelter will be built this summer, writes Sara M. Chase for the Ashland Daily Press.
Kathy Rice talks Pie Place during WTIP interview: Author of Secrets of the Pie Place Café, Kathy read a few selections from the new book (which Lake Superior Magazine published). She was joined by Pie Place family members Jeremy and Plami Chase to discuss changes to the business this year.
Thunder Bay residents should become local ambassadors: So says tourism manager Paul Pepe. He’s interviewed for a CBC story about a tourism trend: “In a growing number of cities, locals are offering up their services to lead guided tours.”
Wisconsin’s Douglas County adopts new wetland plan: It will give rural towns a louder voice in managing wetlands in the Lake Superior watershed, reports Shelley Nelson in the Superior Telegram.
Konnie LeMay interviewed by WKAR: The radio station out of Michigan State University talked with Lake Superior Magazine’s editor about our latest issue and top sights on the Lake Superior Circle Tour.
Early fires in northwestern Ontario: Thanks to dry conditions, one forest fire forced authorities to briefly close the Trans-Canada Highway between Marathon and White River, reports the Sault Star’s Elaine Della-Mattia. Here’s the latest on burn restrictions in the province.
Wisconsin sprays for gypsy moths: To control the invasive insects, which defoliate thousands of acres of forest in the U.S. each year, the Wisconsin DNR is spraying in parts of northwestern Wisconsin this week.