After four days of significant snowfall across northern Michigan, winter 2024-25 has already surpassed last year’s famously mild cold weather season in at least one metric: school cancellations.

Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) called back-to-back snow days on Monday, December 2 and Tuesday, December 3, which means there have already been more snow days this school year than last. TCAPS cancelled school for inclement weather just one time during the 2023-24 academic year, on February 28.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), the past few days of snowfall also have most of northern Michigan pacing well ahead of a normal winter. In terms of season-to-date totals, Traverse City had tracked 11.6 inches of snowfall as of Tuesday morning, while Petoskey had tallied 13.9 and Gaylord had recorded a whopping 47.4 inches. Traverse City’s normal snowfall statistic at this point in the season is just 6.8 inches, while Petoskey’s is 11.4 and Gaylord’s is 21.7.