Canadian cold finally moves in to stay for awhile
The first significant snow of 2012 will be nearly statewide, and will be accompanied by a lasting blast of winter air.
/ Kevin Usealman
After a December that was the7th warmest on record in Flint and the 5th warmest in recorded history in the Tri-Cities coupled with a January that so far seemed on track for the same thing, payback is almost here. Payback in the form of our first significant snowfall since late November.
After one more mild day on Wednesday with highs in the upper 40s, temperatures will hold steady in the mid to upper 30s on Thursday as we will look for some rain early, changing to a mix of rain and snow later in the day and eventually all snow by Thursday night. Thursday night temperatures will quickly fall below freezing making for slippery roads and heavy snow at times, especially in the northern thumb and in central lower Michigan could bring as much as 6" to places like Midland, Bay City and Gladwin. Some areas near lake Huron or Saginaw Bay, especially in the thumb (Huron and Sanilac co.) could see locally higher amounts by Saturday morning with lake effect snow kicking in. Saginaw south to Flint, Davison, Lapeer and Owosso will be in the 2-4" area but with blowing and some drifting on Friday will keep roads slick in spots right into the weekend as temperatures will stay cold through the weekend and into early next week. This will be the first extended stretch of below freezing temperatures this winter. The western half of the state and much of the U.P. is under winter storm watches for 6-10" with over a foot possible in the lake effect snow belts near Traverse City and Kalkaska south of Little Traverse Bay and west of Grayling and in the northern UP some areas could see up to 20" by Saturday morning. Call ahead for exact conditions, but snowmobile trails up north should be in the best shape of the season so far this weekend.
The last significant snowfall came on the night of November 29th and the morning of November 30th, dropping 6.8" in the Tri-Cities and kicking the winter season off with what seemed at the time like a bang. Since then temperatures have been largely above normal with little to no snow. In December, MBS airport observations recorded 5" of snow for the month, well short of the average of 9", with never more than 2" coming in one snowfall. Frequent thaws also kept the snow from staying as highs only stayed in the 20s three days out of the month, well below the average number of December days with highs in the 20s, which is 10.
So far January has been even warmer with highs in the 20s only having occurred once (Jan. 3rd) with highs in the 40s 5 out of the first 10 days of the month and highs reaching 51 degrees on the 6th and only scattered snowshowers having accompanied our cold snap. The normal high for January 11th is 30 degrees and the normal low is 16 based on Flint data. Starting Friday highs and lows will be below normal for the majority of the next week at least, with indications of a much more wintery pattern to take hold into February as well.
You can check the latest forecast on the NBC25 weather page
