Western Upper Michigan - MI01

Included Counties: Baraga, Dickinson, Gogebic, Houghton, Iron, Keweenaw, Marquette, Menominee, Ontonagon

Watersheds:

Bad-Montreal, Betsy-Chocolay, Black-Presque Isle, Brule, Cedar-Ford, Dead-Kelsey, Escanaba, Flambeau, Keweenaw Peninsula, Lake Michigan, Lake Superior, Menominee, Michigamme, Ontonagon, Sturgeon, Tacoosh-Whitefish, Upper Wisconsin

Geography The Western Upper Peninsula is characterized by rugged terrain with rolling hills and expanses of contiguous forestland. Sugar maple, yellow birch, eastern hemlock, basswood, and white pine, are the most prevalent tree species. The region has a varied landscape of moraines, bogs, lake plains, outwash channels, outwash plains, and bedrock ridges. Overview The Great Lakes have a tremendous effect on most of the peninsula. When compared to areas at the same latitude that are farther from the Lakes Huron and Superior, temperatures are cooler in the late spring and early summer and warmer during the late fall and early winter. In the late winter, as ice coverage on the lakes increases, the area experiences larger temperature variations similar to those at inland locations at the same latitude. The result is winters that are usually long and cold with abundant snowfall. Intense lake-effect snowstorms off Lake superior are notorious throughout the region. The center ridge of the Keweenaw Peninsula rises 1200 feet above Lake Superior and brings in more snow during the winter months than any other location east of the Mississippi River.