Metro Detroit weather: Windy Thursday with light rain

Wind advisory, lakeshore flood warnings issued for Thursday, Friday

As expected, wind will increase Thursday, which will have a number of ramifications in our weather. Let’s address those one-by-one:

Wind advisory

Northeast winds will become gustier and, by Thursday afternoon, should gust to between 40 and 45 mph (perhaps even approaching 50 mph near the Lake Huron shoreline). Accordingly, the National Weather Service has issued a wind advisory for the entire region from 11 a.m. through 8 p.m. Thursday, as this wind could cause some power outages.

Lakeshore flood warning, advisory

The strong northeast wind will push water toward our coastlines, so a lakeshore flood warning has been issued for the Monroe County shoreline through 4 a.m. Friday. A lakeshore flood advisory has been issued for the Wayne, Macomb, St. Clair and Sanilac county shoreline areas through 4 a.m. Friday.

Thursday rain

The northeast wind is also coming from a source of drier Canadian air, and that air feeding into our area should keep the rain very light, with some areas just picking up drizzle. Best chance for any meaningful rain is south of I-94. If we were able to generate heavy enough rainfall rates, that drier air would also cause some evaporation of the rain, which potentially would cool the air column enough to give us some wet snowflakes. That process is called evaporative cooling. You know how you feel cold when you step out of the shower or out of a pool? That’s because water is evaporating off your skin, and you feel the loss of energy needed to facilitate that evaporation process.

That drier air coming from the northeast is also cooler air, so we’ll only reach the mid 40s Thursday, but it will be cooler near those lakeshores.

Rain will be gone by Thursday evening, and we’ll see clearing skies Thursday night. Lows will be in the mid 20s. Northeast wind will continue at 15 to 25 mph, and will still have some gustiness.

Friday will be sunny -- you may not see a single cloud and, if you do, don’t worry...it’s just lost. However, it’ll be breezy and still cool with highs in the mid 40s. North-northeast wind will move at 10 to 20 mph.

We’ll have clear skies Friday night, with lows in the mid 20s.

Weekend ahead -- fire up the grills!

What a fantastic weekend ahead we have! Sunny skies will continue through Sunday, with highs Saturday in the low 50s, and in the upper 50s to near 60 degrees on Sunday.

We’ll have another nice day on Monday, with partly cloudy skies and highs in the low 60s.

Tuesday should bring more cloud cover, but it will stay mild with highs in the low 60s.

The pattern gets a little uncertain midweek next week, but it appears that shower chances will increase. We actually need the rain, so this would be a good thing.

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