Morning commuters could face slippery drive as snow returns to Metro Detroit overnight

DETROIT – It’s been a fine Thursday (March 10) with plenty of sunshine mixed with some pretty mid and high-level clouds, making for a beautiful sky.

Clouds will increase overnight, and light snow will develop during the night and likely be around in some form for the Friday morning rush hour. Plan to leave a bit early just in case (or, better yet, wake up with Birthday Boy Brandon Roux on Local 4 News Today to assess the conditions and decide then if you need to leave early).

Lows tonight will be in the mid-to-upper 20s (-3 to -2 degrees Celsius). Wind will be light and eventually blow from the north at 3 to 6 mph.

This evening’s sunset is at 6:34 p.m., and Friday morning’s sunrise is at 6:52 a.m. These times will be one hour later, starting Sunday morning (more on the time change below).

Friday

The light snow will persist into the first part of the morning on Friday, and then the pattern deteriorates for the afternoon. The computer models have been all over the place with this snow, but a consensus finally developed about the snow’s arrival. However, there are still some differences in accumulation. After digging through a lot of model data, I think the heart of our area will probably see up to an inch of snow, with areas northwest of a line from Adrian to Ann Arbor to Pontiac to Sandusky getting more. One-to-two inches appears more likely there.

Friday afternoon’s high should reach the mid-to-upper 30s (3 degrees Celsius). Wind will become southwest at 4 to 8 mph.

A potent Arctic cold front will cross the area Friday evening with a fifteen-minute or so snow shower. More importantly is the cold air streaming in behind it, which will push lows into the mid-teens (-8 degrees Celsius) by Saturday morning.

Weekend forecast

Partly cloudy to start on Saturday, then becoming mostly cloudy. But it’ll be breezy and cold, with highs only in the mid-to-upper 20s (-3 to -2 degrees Celsius), but afternoon wind chills only near 10 degrees (-12 degrees Celsius).

Clouds break up Saturday night, with lows in the mid-to-upper-teens (-8 to -7 degrees Celsius).

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward one hour before you go to bed Saturday night, as we return to Daylight saving time at 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Of course, your cell phone will do this automatically. However, you’ll have to manually set your microwave clock. If you forget, you’ll be an hour late for whatever you have planned Sunday morning.

Sunday may start with partly cloudy skies, but clouds will increase ahead of warmer air moving in, and patches of light snow may also develop. I don’t expect any more than a light dusting. Highs Sunday should reach the mid-40s (7 degrees Celsius); what a quick turnaround from Saturday, and it’ll be breezy once again.

Next week

The warming trend I wrote about yesterday is still on track for next week, with the coldest day probably being Tuesday (highs in the upper 40s, 8 degrees Celsius). The rest of the week will be warmer, with Thursday likely being the warmest day with highs in the low 60s (17 degrees Celsius), and it looks as if meaningful precipitation chances don’t return until perhaps Friday.


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