Winter storm watch tonight in SE Michigan: Timing, how much snow to expect

Significant snow moves in overnight

Snow plow. (Generic)

Metro Detroit will be under a Winter Storm Watch starting at midnight and lasting all day Wednesday for significant snow moving in.

The rest of your Tuesday is cloudy and still mild with highs 35-40F and winds NE 7-17 mph which makes it feel about five degrees cooler. That wind is also creating wave and flooding concerns for the shorelines of Lakes Huron and Erie. Watch out!

Snow moves in tonight

We will start to see some scattered snow and rain moving in through the late afternoon, and parts of our South Zone may get into it a little sooner. This will slow down the evening drive today, but at these temps, it may be more rain than snow during that commute. Eventually, it will all switch over to snow tonight.

So, who’s wondering if we’ll get a Snow Day Wednesday? Snow will get going later tonight and then stall out or break apart for a short while. So, we likely will only wake up to 1-2” of new snow in the morning. Our bigger concern is the snow piling up during the day and then trying to bus the kids home.

Snow will make both the morning and evening drives very slick and slow, and we will see a grand total of 3-6” of snow Wednesday with most of us on the higher end of that range, and a few spots perhaps getting 6-8” of snow all day tomorrow.

A Winter Weather Advisory is also in effect for SE Michigan until 12 a.m. on Thursday, which means travel is expected to be very difficult.


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Thursday, Friday forecast

The snow will wrap up late, late Wednesday, but we cannot rule out a few snow showers and/or snow squalls Thursday as cold air races back into SE Lower Michigan and Southern Ontario. Temps in the 20s all day Thursday will feel like single digits and teens due to an increasing wind from the WNW 10-30 mph.

It’s still cold Friday from teens early to middle 20s in the afternoon, and a few of those nuisance snow showers.

Weekend forecast

Our weather stabilizes this weekend as we head back into the 30s under partly sunny skies Saturday, and a few snow showers Sunday with highs in the middle 30s. Try and shovel in shifts to avoid problems with your back and heart, and be careful out on those roads. Remember, your best weather tool any day, is the new and improved Local4Casters app, free in your app store searching WDIV.

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