WEST MICHIGAN — My colleague Jon Shaner did an excellent job in laying out the forecast for the remainder of our weekend and this messy wintry mix. See his article posted earlier on FOX 17 here. There’s no real changes, but I’ll pick up a bit more on the Arctic blast.
I would expect temperatures only in the single digits by Monday morning along with windy conditions and wind chills well below zero (about -10 to -20) as the kids head back to school. Accumulating lake-effect snow is likely along/west of U.S. 131 through the day with another 1″ or so possible. More intense snowfall with higher accumulations are likely Monday night in to Tuesday morning as another area of low pressure slides through the Great Lakes. In fact, a WINTER STORM WATCH has already been posted for most of the area for this event. Several inches and lake-enhancement is possible from this system during that time frame. We’ll briefly warm in to the upper teens on Tuesday ahead of this system, but even colder air will be dragged down behind it.
More lake-effect snows are likely Wednesday with highs only around 10 degrees and wind chills running (again) well below zero…probably on the order of about -10 to -20. More lake-effect snow will occur on Thursday before it finally starts to warm enough to start shutting down on Friday. I would expect some locations along/west of U.S. 131 may see more than a foot of snow before the week is over. Make sure the snow blower and pre-mixed fuel is ready to roll!
I’ve taken the liberty of attaching the wind chill chart from the National Weather Service so we can all re-acclimate ourselves with dressing properly and just how cold it can get with a little wind and an Arctic air mass. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the kids in some districts getting a day or two off during the week if nothing else…simply due to significant wind chills (below zero). Click here for the larger/easy-to-read chart.
As always you can check current conditions, temperatures, radar, satellite, and the latest FutureTrack HD computer forecast model at www.fox17online.com/weather. Stay warm and be safe!
