DETROIT – Snow is steadily marching across the state, and will overspread our area by late afternoon and early evening.
This is going to be an intense, but short-duration snow event, with an average of five-to-six inches across southeast Michigan (possibly a bit more north of M-59 up into the Thumb), tapering off around 4 a.m.
What makes this forecast a bit challenging is that the storm system heading our way will cross the state in an intensifying stage, rather than as a steady-state mature cyclone.
I'll post some quick updates on Twitter (follow me at @PaulGrossLocal4) if there are any meaningful changes.
Tuesday and Wednesday will both feature some sunshine, with highs in the mid to upper 30s … nice winter days.
Thursday brings our next storm, but we'll be on the warm side of this one, with rain showers developing, and highs soaring into the 40s.
We have a deep snowpack, so I'll have to keep a very close eye on the rainfall amounts.
If this turns into a heavy rain event, then widespread flooding would be a significant concern. Another concern is wind: very strong low-level jet stream wind will overspread our area Thursday night, which could bring a widespread high wind event to our area with numerous power outages.
I'll certainly keep you updated on this potentially serious weather event.
Temps return closer to normal (low to mid 30s) as we head into the weekend but … just when you thought it was safe to come out of the house…it looks as if another chunk of that Polar Vortex you heard so much about in January will swing back down across the Great Lakes next week, bringing bitter cold Arctic air back to metro Detroit.
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