Presented By: Graham Sustainability Institute
Water@Michigan Coffee Talk: Changing Michigan Winters
Talk Description: Climate change is not coming. It is here. We have seen it starkly in northern Michigan over the last three years.
In late March 2025, a 60-hour freezing rain event coated far northern Michigan in up to an inch of ice, collapsing the power grid, cutting running water and communication to rural communities, and leaving thousands without heat as temperatures then plunged. Ice up to an inch thick built on the Mackinac Bridge, the most significant icing in its history, forcing closures as slabs the size of garage doors fell from the cables. In June 2026, four to seven inches of rain fell within hours across the Lower Peninsula, triggering a state of emergency in three counties. Weeks later, wildfire smoke drove July trip cancellations, contributing to more than $6.6 billion in economic damages statewide, the highest of any state.
This panel focuses on the changing winter behind events like these. Northern Michigan is not simply losing snow. It is losing winter as a season we can count on. Warmer air, declining lake ice, shorter snow cover, and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles are restructuring winter into something more episodic. A December snowstorm, a January thaw, rain, ice, then another Arctic outbreak.
The consequences extend across the systems the region relies on. Thinning snowpack can expose soils and roots to freezing, shift wildlife distributions, and reduce plant productivity at large spatial scales. Winter recreation, forestry, and tourism all depend on cold and snow persisting long enough to plan around. For people, longer tick activity windows can increase Lyme disease risk, while the loss of reliable winter changes the traditions that connect families and communities to this place.
Our panelists will explore these ecological, economic, and human dimensions together, because the future of Michigan winters is not one story. It is many changes, unfolding at once.
Moderator: Aimée Classen, Professor, LSA and Director of the U-M Biological Station
Panelists: Ayumi Fujisake-Manome, Associate Director & Associate Research Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research; and Jacob Napieralski, Professor of Geology; Director, Environmental Interpretative Center; U-M Dearborn
About Coffee Talks: Coffee Talks provide a monthly opportunity for U-M faculty, staff, and students interested in water, and water-interested people in southeast Michigan to connect with colleagues, learn about pressing and/or emerging water-related issues, and meet new partners.
This academic year, we are excited to Envision Resilient Great Lakes Futures—examining the future opportunities, challenges, and innovations shaping the region's water resources, communities, and ecosystems.
Coffee Talks are in-person convenings designed to build connections as part of the U-M Water Center's mission and programs; we are not recording sessions at this time.
You can register here: https://graham.umich.edu/wateratmichigan/coffee-talks
In late March 2025, a 60-hour freezing rain event coated far northern Michigan in up to an inch of ice, collapsing the power grid, cutting running water and communication to rural communities, and leaving thousands without heat as temperatures then plunged. Ice up to an inch thick built on the Mackinac Bridge, the most significant icing in its history, forcing closures as slabs the size of garage doors fell from the cables. In June 2026, four to seven inches of rain fell within hours across the Lower Peninsula, triggering a state of emergency in three counties. Weeks later, wildfire smoke drove July trip cancellations, contributing to more than $6.6 billion in economic damages statewide, the highest of any state.
This panel focuses on the changing winter behind events like these. Northern Michigan is not simply losing snow. It is losing winter as a season we can count on. Warmer air, declining lake ice, shorter snow cover, and more frequent freeze-thaw cycles are restructuring winter into something more episodic. A December snowstorm, a January thaw, rain, ice, then another Arctic outbreak.
The consequences extend across the systems the region relies on. Thinning snowpack can expose soils and roots to freezing, shift wildlife distributions, and reduce plant productivity at large spatial scales. Winter recreation, forestry, and tourism all depend on cold and snow persisting long enough to plan around. For people, longer tick activity windows can increase Lyme disease risk, while the loss of reliable winter changes the traditions that connect families and communities to this place.
Our panelists will explore these ecological, economic, and human dimensions together, because the future of Michigan winters is not one story. It is many changes, unfolding at once.
Moderator: Aimée Classen, Professor, LSA and Director of the U-M Biological Station
Panelists: Ayumi Fujisake-Manome, Associate Director & Associate Research Scientist, Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research; and Jacob Napieralski, Professor of Geology; Director, Environmental Interpretative Center; U-M Dearborn
About Coffee Talks: Coffee Talks provide a monthly opportunity for U-M faculty, staff, and students interested in water, and water-interested people in southeast Michigan to connect with colleagues, learn about pressing and/or emerging water-related issues, and meet new partners.
This academic year, we are excited to Envision Resilient Great Lakes Futures—examining the future opportunities, challenges, and innovations shaping the region's water resources, communities, and ecosystems.
Coffee Talks are in-person convenings designed to build connections as part of the U-M Water Center's mission and programs; we are not recording sessions at this time.
You can register here: https://graham.umich.edu/wateratmichigan/coffee-talks
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