Metro Detroit weather update: Chance for wintry mix, staying cold

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.



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