Winter doesn’t officially arrive until Wednesday, December 21st at 5:44 am. However, we got our first taste of it this morning!
With our first artic blast, temperatures dropped into the twenties this morning. The gusty winds cranked up the lake effect machine making for snow squalls which reduced visibilities on the roads (including causing a huge 40 car pileup on I-96 near Fowlerville). The lake effect type snow will continue at times on Friday but the bigger story is the accumulating snow we’ll see this weekend.
Our first true accumulating snow system is a 2 parter:
1) Saturday night through Sunday morning
2) Sunday night through Monday afternoon
Part 1 could start as early as 8PM and yes, it may be a couple of inches. Honestly, it’s a bit hard to nail down a number right now as the system still resides in the Pacific Northwest.
Following that is what looks like a stronger “punch” from part 2 which could start at about 10PM on Sunday and continue through Monday afternoon. Another few inches are possible from that.
So the bottom line is: get the shovels ready for Sunday and Monday. As Jessica Starr likes to say, “We live in Michigan, not Florida”.
POLAR BLAST COMING
Following this snow comes a real kick to the gut with an arctic blast of air starting Wednesday. Highs will only be in the 20s and lows could fall into the single digits. You can thank a cold pool of air from Canada for this one, as it shoves the jet stream south and lets that cold air rush to us.
Ouch.
It isn’t “average” temps for us, but these things do happen in the month of December.
DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS?
Speaking of end of December, what are the chances of a White Christmas? Stay tuned for a breakdown of our chances coming early next week.