Metro Detroit's double whammy of winter snow, Detroit man charged mutilation of dead body, a Mt. Clemens fire
MONDAY NEWS HIT - Winter's icy grip on Michigan will continue this week with several more cold temperature days forecasted for the next few days. However, it's the snow accumulation that will be making most of the weather-related headlines.
Two snow systems strafing across the Midwest and southeast will hit Metro Detroit in succession today and tomorrow.
Some parts of Southeast Michigan could see close to 10 inches of precipitation, making for some tricky driving conditions and likely shoveling.
For most of Metro Detroit, part one of Michigan's two-part snowfall is already complete. Snow began falling early Monday morning after a Winter Weather Advisory went into effect around midnight. The National Weather Service says the advisory will be in effect until midday Tuesday.
The first snow was light and dry and will total one to three inches by noon today. If you're planning on shoveling your sidewalk and driveway, don't wait too long after then to start. That's because the second snowfall will be more severe, featuring heavier precipitation.
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The second system is approaching from the south and will be carrying more moisture, which means more snowfall. For any following the news out of Texas and Oklahoma, much of what creamed the deep south is what's heading toward Michigan.
On its current track, the second snowfall will be after 6 p.m. and won't stop until noon Tuesday. Preliminary totals predict between 4-6 inches of snow.
The systems are still shifting and could become even more severe. In northern Ohio near Toledo and Cleveland, Winter Storm Warnings estimate a foot of snow will dump on the region. While Metro Detroit isn't under a threat like that yet, it could be depending on how things fall.
Up to 6 to 9 inches of snow is expected over the course of the next 36 hours as snowmakers push into southeast Michigan.
Snowfall totals will increase heading further south. Northern Oakland County could see around 6.5 inches while Detroit would see closer to 7.8 inches. To the west in Washtenaw County, about 7.6 inches is expected and in south in Monroe County, it's closer to 8.5 inches.
Temperatures won't go much higher than 17 degrees and with the threat of wind chill, that will feel colder than what actually is as well.
Detroit man charged with mutilation of Livingston County woman
A Detroit man has been charged with mutilation of a dead body in connection with the discovery of a Livingston County woman, who had been missing since November.
Dowan Knighton, 47, was arrested shortly after Kayla Pierce's remains were discovered at a location in Detroit last week around 8 p.m.
Knighton was also charged with concealing the death of an individual and tampering with evidence and was arraigned on $50,000 bond.
Pierce was first reported missing by her mother on Nov. 24 when she was last seen at a gas station in Howell, near her home. Michigan State Police and the Livingston County Sheriff's office assisted the Detroit police with the investigation.
8 hospitalized in Mount Clemens apartment fire
An inferno that tore through a Mount Clemens apartment has hospitalized several and left occupants without a place to stay during an extremely cold stretch of winter in Michigan.
Beginning around 11:30 p.m., the blaze would eventually destroy most possessions and cause non-life-threatening injuries to many who lived there. Firefighters say that residents were forced to jump from their balconies due to the heavy presence of smoke in the stairwells of the apartment.
The Red Cross has also established temporary housing for some 20 residents that did live at the apartment. Among the challenges that kept firefighters from getting the blaze under control sooner was a fire hydrant nearby that was frozen shut due to the cold weather.
Firefighters were back on the scene Sunday trying to put out any smoldering remains that had stayed warm enough through the night to reignite.
Beaumont Hospital relaxes visitation rules
Beaumont Health says it is easing restrictions on visitation rules for patients that don't have COVID-19 starting Monday.
The area hospital system said beginning at 8 a.m. today, patients without the virus can be visited by one support person. Patients who are at end-of-life may have two support people. A laboring woman can have two support people and a doula present while children may have two parents nearby. One can stay overnight.
The only people allowed to visit patients with a pending or positive COVID-19 test includes those near end-of-life, women in labor, children under 21, and in other extreme conditions.
The hospital says the rule change is due to the decline in inpatient COVID-19 numbers.
What else we're watching
- Fat Tuesday is only a day away, and that means the reemergence of the famed paczki. Bakeries in Hamtramck and Detroit are already hard at work preparing for the busy day.
- Speaking of Hamtramck, the little municipality will see the opening of a new cannabis dispensary Monday when Puff Cannabis Company opens. The city council had originally failed to opt-out of allowing recreational marijuana before voting to do so.
- General Motors will help to hand out recycled coats that transform into sleeping bags starting Monday when The Empowerment Plan meets with homeless people at Street Medicine.
- Joe Biden is planning on traveling to Portage this week to tour Pfizer's plant where it's producing its COVID-19 vaccine.
- It's unclear what the political fallout will be for Michigan's Senate Majority Leader - if there will be one - once the dust settles from his latest series of mistakes. However, as pointed out by Tim Skubick in his column this week, some small businesses have privately indicated they won't be making any more financial contributions to Mike Shirkey.
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Daily Forecast
It's going to be a wild week for winter weather with heavy snow accumulation Monday and Tuesday, more snowfall on Thursday, and temperatures ranging from the teens today, negatives tomorrow and 20s later this week.
US daily coronavirus case average drops below 100K for first time in months
Average daily new coronavirus cases in the United States dipped below 100,000 in recent days for the first time in months, but experts cautioned Sunday that infections remain high and precautions to slow the pandemic must remain in place.
The seven-day rolling average of new infections was well above 200,000 for much of December and went to roughly 250,000 in January, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University, as the pandemic came roaring back after it had been tamed in some places over the summer.
That average dropped below 100,000 on Friday for the first time since Nov. 4. It stayed below 100,000 on Saturday.
"We are still at about 100,000 cases a day. We are still at around 1,500 to 3,500 deaths per day. The cases are more than two-and-a-half-fold times what we saw over the summer," Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said on NBC’s "Meet the Press." "It’s encouraging to see these trends coming down, but they’re coming down from an extraordinarily high place."