DETROIT – A lot of people are making a big deal about the approaching storm but, truth-be-told, there are a lot of positives to this snow.
First, the snow will fall entirely on Saturday, so no rush hours will be affected.
Second, children really haven’t had a chance to play in the snow yet this season, so they’ll finally have a chance to get out there.
Third, although temps have been cold enough for our local ski resorts to make snow, a nice natural helping from Mother Nature sure helps.
Finally, if you hate snow, hate winter, but love to play on the water in the summer, then you’d better hope for some snow, because those lake levels are almost entirely replenished every year by melting snow.
No snow means drastically lower lake levels, and nobody wants that.
Our Friday (TGIF!) won’t pose any weather problems, as we’ll have a dry day with lots of clouds, but some peeks of midday sun. Highs in the low to mid 30s (1 degree Celsius). West wind at 4 to 8 mph.
Here comes the snow
Snow develops toward midnight Friday (perhaps a little sooner for those of you in Lenawee and Washtenaw Counties). Lows near 20 degrees (-7 degrees Celsius). North wind at 5 to 10 mph.
Snow continues through the day Saturday, and begins tapering off Saturday evening.
It appears that total snow will be as follows:
- 4 to 6 inches for Lenawee and Monroe Counties (perhaps into parts of Washtenaw and Wayne Counties)
- 3 to 4 inches between I-94 and M-59, and 2 to 3 inches north of M-59.
A winter weather advisory has been issued for Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, Monroe, Livingston and Lenawee counties from 2 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday.
Check out our exclusive 4ZONE forecast with specific snowfall totals for your neighborhood here.
Highs Saturday in the mid 20s (-3 degrees Celsius), but a north wind at 10 to 15 mph will make it feel like low teens (-11 degrees Celsius).
Snow ends Saturday evening, with partial clearing late at night. Bitterly cold, with lows in the low teens (-11 degrees Celsius) and wind chills down to -5 degrees (-21 degrees Celsius) by dawn.
Partly cloudy on Sunday, but any sun we get will be purely cosmetic, with highs in the mid teens (-8 degrees Celsius), and wind chills near or below zero (-18 degrees Celsius).
Mostly clear and bitterly cold Sunday night. Lows near zero (-18 degrees Celsius). Fortunately, wind should be light.
The next storm
Everybody’s already talking about the next storm…and we haven’t gotten past the weekend one yet!
Monday, however, will be dry, with mostly sunny skies and highs in the mid teens (-8 degrees Celsius).
Tuesday starts dry, but we finish the day with precipitation. Right now, snow appears to be the primary precipitation type, but there could be some mix, or even rain, coming into play…that would cut back on snow totals.
It’s impossible to try and gauge how much snow at this point, but plan on a potentially messy commute home from work Tuesday afternoon.
Regardless, this is another big winter storm, with big snow potential at least for the northern half of the lower peninsula (if not us)…more great news for the ski resorts!
