Metro Detroit weather update: Chance for wintry mix, staying cold
Brett Collar, Meteorologist
The Michigan weather radar on Jan. 17, 2022. (WDIV)
DETROIT – Here is the Metro Detroit weather forecast update for Jan. 17, 2022, afternoon and evening.
Wintry mix chance Wednesday
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Most of the action stays to our north, but models are all pretty consistent in spitting out a few raindrops or snowflakes shortly before and during daybreak Wednesday
It doesn’t look like we’ll have much of an impact from this, as it’ll be scattered in nature, but it’s something we’ll have to watch.
We also can’t rule out a few snowflakes later Wednesday evening, but we’re not expecting much.
Staying cold
No big warm-ups are coming anytime soon. We get into the mid-, maybe upper 30s Wednesday, but that’s about it. We’ll be steady in the 20s the rest of this week and next.
Snow chances return early next week
Long-range models are not looking good for what happens early next week, as there are multiple different solutions.
We’re leaning towards some light snow later Saturday into Sunday, then a better shot Monday evening into Tuesday. However, it’s worth noting that this will be tweaked in some fashion over the coming days since there’s such inconsistency amongst the long-range models.
Cold headlines
Normal low at 18 degrees (Jan. 20)
The normal low is at 18 degrees as of Thursday. This is the coldest normal low that we see in a calendar years.
Coldest temperature in Detroit history (Jan. 21)
On Jan 21, 1984, we hit -21 degrees, marking the coldest temperature in Detroit history.
Coldest normal high of the year (Jan. 22)
Saturday is the coldest normal high that we see, at 31.8 degrees.
The National Weather Service likes to round up normals to whole numbers for climatological purposes, but when you look at the numbers down to tenths, the coldest is 31.8 degrees.
Coldest temperature in United States history (Jan. 23)
Sunday is the anniversary of the coldest temperature recorded in U.S. history.
Prospect Creek, Alaska, dropped to -80 degrees back on Jan 23, 1971.