Metro Detroit weather: Trading sunshine for snowflakes

DETROIT – How about that sunshine! Even when it’s cold, a day with blue sky and sunshine sure makes a difference around here in the winter, when cold air flowing across Lake Michigan typically creates so much cloud cover.

We’ll maintain mostly clear skies into the evening, with clouds then moving back in later at night. Temperatures will drop until the clouds move in and then rise a bit after that. So, how low we go will be dictated by the clouds’ timing, and, at this point, my thinking is that we’ll bottom out in the low teens (-11 degrees Celsius). Southeast winds will become south, at 5 to 10 mph by dawn.

This evening’s sunset is at 5:34 p.m., and Saturday’s sunrise is at 7:55 a.m.

Weekend forecast

Saturday starts mostly cloudy, and we’ll periodic light snowflakes beginning as early as late morning for some of us, continuing off and on until late afternoon or early evening. My forecast remains consistent with what I’ve told you over the past days: I think we’ll only see a few tenths of an inch of accumulation if that. It’ll become noticeably breezy during the day, with southwest winds at 15 to 20 mph gusting to 20 to 30 mph during the afternoon. Those southwest winds will boost temperatures into the upper 20s (-2 degrees Celsius), but, as you know, that wind will make it feel colder.

Any lingering flurries Saturday evening will end, and the rest of the night will be cloudy but dry. The only possible exception is the chance for some late-night flakes south of I-94, which could extend into Sunday morning if they develop. Lows in the mid-teens (-8 degrees Celsius).

It appears that the cloud cover will break up from north to south during the day on Sunday, so, hopefully, most of us will get some sunshine out of the deal. Highs in the mid-20s (-5 to -4 degrees Celsius).

Increasing clouds Sunday night, with lows in the low- to mid-teens (-10 to -9 degrees Celsius).

Monday

While there are still some fine-tuning details yet to be resolved, some of the computer models are coming into a general agreement on the Monday storm in that the low-pressure area itself will track eastward across central Michigan – north of our area. As such, the snow we get here in southeast Michigan will result from the lead edge of the push of warmer air ahead of the system, so once it develops, which should be by late morning, big snowflakes will develop – they’ll be pretty to watch.

The morning rush hour Monday will be dry, but it’ll be a slower afternoon rush hour, with the snow not tapering off until Monday evening. At this point, I expect a general one-to-four-inch snowfall across southeast Michigan, with the lowest amounts near the state line, gradually increasing to the higher amounts in the Thumb.

Highs Monday should approach 30 degrees (-1 degree Celsius), but don’t get used to it as more Arctic air arrives behind this storm system.

You know I’ll keep you posted here on ClickOnDetroit.com, on Local 4 and on the Local4Casters weather app.


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