Metro Detroit weather: Snow continues, arctic blast on the way

Snow expected to be gone this evening

DETROIT – Snow continues across the area.  

It's coming in waves...one minute you're just seeing very light flakes, and the next minute it's coming down hard.  

Our forecast looks to be on track, with perhaps the lower end of our forecast ranges verifying.  That means around 4" south of I-94, 2-3" between I-94 and I-69, and 1-2" north of I-69. Temperatures will hold steady today in the low 20s, but a northeast wind at 10 to 15 mph will make it feel between 5 and 10 degrees.

The snow exits stage right during the first half of the afternoon, and should be gone by late afternoon with partial clearing later tonight. The one exception is that the cold northeast to north winds flowing over Lake Huron will generate some lake effect snow bands.

These bands are typically narrow, but where they set up could bring another inch or two of snow. Areas most likely to see some of this are Sanilac and St. Clair Counties, and possibly even extreme eastern Macomb County.

Bitterly cold overnight, with lows in the low teens and wind chills down to -5 to -10 degrees by dawn.

Believe it or not, an air mass as cold, if not colder than the one moving in tonight, will arrive next weekend.

Sunday

It will be partly cloudy on Sunday, but any sun we get will be purely cosmetic with highs in the mid teens (-8 degrees celsius), and wind chills between -5 and -10 degrees (-23 to-21 degrees celsius).

It will be mostly clear and bitterly cold Sunday night.  The lows will be near zero (-18 degrees celsius). Fortunately, winds should be light, but even light wind will generate bitter cold wind chills, possibly -10 to-15 degrees (-26 to-23 degrees celsius).

The next storm

There is already talk about the next storm and we have not gotten past the weekend yet. On Monday the Martin Luther King holiday will be celebrated. It will be dry with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid teens (-8 degrees celsius).

Tuesday starts dry but precipitation develops late.  As we suspected Friday rain is going to come into play on Tuesday, and that obviously cuts into snow totals.  

Regardless, this is another big winter storm, with increasing chances for big snow over the northern half of the lower peninsula, which is more great news for the ski resorts. 

And by the way, the super long range computer models suggest an air mass equally cold, if not worse than the one coming tomorrow, to invade the Great Lakes next weekend.  Winter is here!