Metro Detroit weather: First snowfall arrives

Get ready for Halloween warm-up

DETRIOIT – Yes, some of you saw snowflakes Wednesday, and some of you saw -- and heard -- sleet. Why? The explanation is actually very interesting.

If you were watching Brandon Roux Wednesday morning on Local 4 News, you saw him tracking rain moving our way, but what you couldn’t see on the radar was the very dry air over us. As that rain moved into our area, it fell into the dry air and initially evaporated. That’s critical because evaporation causes cooling, which is why you feel chillier after stepping out of the shower or a pool -- the water evaporating off of your skin is causes cooling.

Recommended Videos



The air column started to cool, and temps aloft fell to and even below freezing. Those of you who ended up with a mostly below freezing layer of air aloft got snowflakes. Those of you with slightly milder air aloft had rain drops freeze into ice pellets, also called sleet.

How did we get snow or sleet if temperatures here at ground level were above freezing? That above-freezing layer was very shallow, so the snowflakes or ice pellets didn’t have enough time to melt before you and I saw (and felt) them. Then, as warmer air aloft continued pushing into the area (which is still happening as I write this), those frozen hydrometeors (snowflakes and sleet) changed over to rain, which is still occurring for some of you in our Northern Zone.

Thus, only rain will prevail tonight once those early evening snowflakes and ice pellets to the north change over, with temperatures actually rising a bit into the low 40s (5-6 degrees Celsius for our Canadian friends). There will be east-northeast wind at 8 to 13 mph.

Our overnight rain will transition to scattered light showers early Thursday morning, which will diminish through the day. Only those of you in our North Zone may still see some showers through the afternoon. Highs will be in the mid- to upper 40s (8-9 degrees Celsius).

Thursday’s sunrise is at 8:01 a.m., and Thursday’s sunset is at 6:33 p.m. It will become partly cloudy Thursday night, with lows in the mid-30s (2-3 degrees Celsius).

It will be mostly sunny to partly cloudy on Friday, with highs in the mid- to upper 50s (13-14 degrees Celsius). Friday night will be mostly cloudy, with lows near 50 degrees (10 degrees Celsius).

Saturday will be mostly cloudy, perhaps with a bit more sun developing by mid-afternoon. Highs will be in the low 60s (16-17 degrees Celsius).

It continues to look dry and mild for the Michigan-Michigan State game in East Lansing. It will be a bit breezy, but you can handle breezy and mild, as opposed to colder temps with a wind chill.

Saturday night will be mostly cloudy, with lows in the mid-40s (7 degrees Celsius). It will be mostly cloudy on Sunday, with highs in the mid-50s (13 degrees Celsius).

It will become partly cloudy Sunday night, with lows near 40 degrees (5 degrees Celsius).

Halloween forecast

There are still no changes to the Halloween forecast that I’ve been giving you since Monday of last week.

It will be a dry day, with partly cloudy skies, and highs reaching the low 60s (16-17 degrees Celsius), perhaps upper 50s (14-15 degrees Celsius) in our North Zone, and the northern part of our West Zone.

Sunset is at 6:26 p.m., and remember that there will be no moonlight Monday evening, so it’ll be extra dark. Make sure your kids have flashlights with them, and another great idea is to put a few strips of reflective tape on their costumes to make them more visible to approaching vehicles.

Sign up for ClickOnDetroit Email Newsletters (click here) for more stories like this.