Snow, winds gusting to 50 mph return to Lansing area overnight

LANSING - Blowing snow and freezing roads could make driving hazardous on Thursday night and Friday as a brief thaw gives way to another blast of cold air, forecasters said.

Winter weather advisories are in effect until 7 p.m. Friday for much of south-central and southwest Michigan, including the Lansing area.

Rain was expected to start changing over to snow around 10 p.m. Thursday, with patchy, dense fog in some areas before 8 p.m., the National Weather Service said.

West winds gusting to around 50 mph could cause scattered power outages and pose the additional hazard of falling ice in areas where it has accumulated on trees, overhead wires and buildings, the agency said.

On Thursday night, dispatchers received numerous reports of trees or power lines down in the Lansing area. At 8 p.m., about 1,840 Lansing Board of Water & Light customers were without power, according to the utility's outage map.

More than 1,000 Consumers Energy customers in the Lansing area had also lost power, according to Consumers' outage map.

A strong surge of cold air on Thursday night and Friday morning could "flash freeze" water on roads and sidewalks and keep the region iced over through the weekend.

Snow is likely on Friday, with temperatures falling into the mid-teens by late afternoon and winds from the west gusting to 40 mph, the weather service said. The Lansing area is expected to get less than an inch of snow, with larger totals expected closer to Lake Michigan.

Saturday will be sunny, with highs in the low 20s. Snow showers are likely on Sunday afternoon, with highs in the upper 20s. Overnight lows will be in the low to mid-teens, with wind chill values of below zero.

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.