As of Tuesday morning, here's the outline of our impending winter storm:
Snow will gradually spread into West Michigan during the day today, but minimal accumulation by this afternoon's commute. Snow will continue to increase into this evening:
That heavy band of snow will develop and lift northward into central and northern Lower Michigan overnight. South of Grand Rapids, accumulations will be less as a mix of sleet, freezing rain, and rain moves in. The question tonight is where the precipitation remians mostly snow, as those places will see the highest totals through early Wednesday:
You'll notice some wide ranges of numbers there... that's intentional because of the uncertainty associated with the type of precipitation that will fall overnight. Our Future Track computer model brings in much more warm air, and as a result cuts most of those snowfall numbers in half. That's not a likely outcome right now, but be aware that it's possible that the snowfall totals are limited a bit into early Wednesday.
We'll see a bit of a break early in the day Wednesday as the main area of low pressure swings through. But once it does, cold air will rush in, winds will pick up dramatically, and temperatures will drop. That means roads will ice up Wednesday afternoon and evening, with heavy lake-effect snow developing. With wind gusts around 40-50 mph, that will create near-blizzard conditions from along U.S. 131 westward to the lakeshore.
Here is the computer forecast of winds Wednesday night... the red and pink colors indicate wind gusts approaching 50 mph:
Snow and blowing snow will continue Thursday and possibly into Friday too before it really starts to lighten up. To complicate matters further, temperatures in the teens to around 20 for most of that time, which is in the range where road salt and chemical treatments are not as effective. It is likely that many of the lake-effect snowbelt regions along and west of U.S. 131 will end up with snowfall totals around a foot, with additional blowing and drifting, by Friday.
Please be safe over the next couple of days! Check for updated Interactive Alerts here... and updated forecasts here.
Snow will gradually spread into West Michigan during the day today, but minimal accumulation by this afternoon's commute. Snow will continue to increase into this evening:
That heavy band of snow will develop and lift northward into central and northern Lower Michigan overnight. South of Grand Rapids, accumulations will be less as a mix of sleet, freezing rain, and rain moves in. The question tonight is where the precipitation remians mostly snow, as those places will see the highest totals through early Wednesday:
You'll notice some wide ranges of numbers there... that's intentional because of the uncertainty associated with the type of precipitation that will fall overnight. Our Future Track computer model brings in much more warm air, and as a result cuts most of those snowfall numbers in half. That's not a likely outcome right now, but be aware that it's possible that the snowfall totals are limited a bit into early Wednesday.
We'll see a bit of a break early in the day Wednesday as the main area of low pressure swings through. But once it does, cold air will rush in, winds will pick up dramatically, and temperatures will drop. That means roads will ice up Wednesday afternoon and evening, with heavy lake-effect snow developing. With wind gusts around 40-50 mph, that will create near-blizzard conditions from along U.S. 131 westward to the lakeshore.
Here is the computer forecast of winds Wednesday night... the red and pink colors indicate wind gusts approaching 50 mph:
Snow and blowing snow will continue Thursday and possibly into Friday too before it really starts to lighten up. To complicate matters further, temperatures in the teens to around 20 for most of that time, which is in the range where road salt and chemical treatments are not as effective. It is likely that many of the lake-effect snowbelt regions along and west of U.S. 131 will end up with snowfall totals around a foot, with additional blowing and drifting, by Friday.
Please be safe over the next couple of days! Check for updated Interactive Alerts here... and updated forecasts here.
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