After most of the region either saw a wintry mix of rain and snow or just plain cold rain showers working through New Year’s Morning, we will keep the moisture around as we work through the majority of the week, and that could promote some dense fog as we work through the evening and overnight hours tonight.
Overnight
The forecast model soundings are showing what we call an inversion, if you think about the atmosphere as a jar, an inversion is basically the lid of the jar, trapping the moisture in the lower levels of the atmosphere.
With this inversion in place, we will keep the chances of some patchy dense fog through the evening and into the overnight hours tonight.
Remember, if you encounter fog, use your low beams, and give yourself some extra space between you and the vehicle in front of you.
Overnight lows drop into the middle/upper 30s for almost everyone.
Beginning of week
We will keep the cloud cover and patchy fog in the forecast as we begin our Monday before our next significant system rolls into the region beginning on Monday night.
Rain will overspread the region as we go from Monday night and into Tuesday as our next cold front works towards the region.
We’re going to see another surge in warm temperatures heading into next Tuesday as well, where most of us will take a run at 60° by the time we get to Tuesday afternoon.
This will also bring another good slug of moisture into the region as we work into the start of the first week of the new year.
We are also looking at a healthy dose of rainfall over the majority of the region, with the forecast models showing at least an inch of rainfall, with some places closing in on an inch and a half by the time we get to Wednesday.
According to the National Weather Service in Detroit/Pontiac, they say “Decent chance of January 3rd daily record rainfalls to be broken at Flint and Saginaw, and potentially Detroit”.
With the unseasonably warm temperatures in the forecast for Tuesday, we are looking at the potential for near record if not record warmth. For Detroit-Wayne County International Airport (DTW) the record high for Tuesday is 59 degrees, and right now we are forecasting 60 degrees. If this happens, this would be a new record high temperature.
The rain showers will continue into the middle of the week on Wednesday as well as this system moves off to the east, but cooler temperatures will also move into the region.
High temperatures only heading for the upper 40s by Wednesday afternoon.
With colder air moving in, the rain showers will change over to a rain/snow mix by the time we get to Wednesday evening.
End of week
With moisture sticking around behind this cold front, and colder air moving into the region as well, we are keeping a chance of snow showers in the forecast as we work into Thursday. High temperatures will be near average, dropping into the lower 30s by Thursday afternoon.
High pressure begins to work into the region as we head into the end of the first week of 2023.
We will keep a mixture of sunshine and clouds in the forecast for Friday with continued colder temperatures sticking around. High temperatures making it into the middle 30s by Friday afternoon, which is very close to where we should be for early January.
Heading into the first part of next weekend, the models are split on what we would see. Some bring in another system late Saturday into next Sunday, one does not. Most agree that we will keep the cloud cover around regardless of if we see any precipitation, so we will continue with cloudy skies and temperatures into the 30s working into next Saturday.