Another powerful storm is heading toward the Great Lakes. Actually, the storm will reach its peak strength as it moves over Michigan.
For Lower Michigan, this won’t be a major snowstorm. It will be a strong wind-maker, and a fast changer of weather conditions.
For at least the western two-thirds of the U.P., the storm will likely produce blizzard conditions and heavy snow.
This graphic shows the pressure pattern (thin black lines) surrounding the storm center at 7 a.m. Sunday morning. The tight spacing of the pressure lines signifies a powerful wind producing storm.
Let’s look at the track of the storm and the pressure pattern. The forecast graphic above shows the center of the storm over central Wisconsin at 7 a.m. Sunday. With a storm center to Lower Michigan’s west, Lower Michigan will be in the warmer sector of the storm. That’s why I say this is not a major accumulating snowstorm for Lower Michigan. In fact, it’s probably all rain for the first half of the storm. Sunday morning will have a raging blizzard in Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota and moving toward the Upper Peninsula.
The rapid change in weather across Lower Michigan will occur Sunday afternoon. As the storm center moves into Canada, the strong winds circulating around the storm will move into Lower Michigan. Much colder temperatures will also follow behind the storm. Snow showers will kick in across Lower Michigan. The accumulations won’t be heavy, but the blowing of snow could be very treacherous.
At 4 p.m. Sunday the storm center will be northeast of Michigan. Winds will increase dramatically, and rain will change to snow showers.
Sunday afternoon will likely have wind gusts over 45 mph over most of Lower Michigan. Temperatures will be dropping from the 30s into the 20s. Spurts of snow showers will be falling. The amount of snow is not a big factor for Lower Michigan. The questionable situation is how dangerous will the blowing snow be Sunday afternoon and evening.
If you are going to drive a high profile vehicle in Lower Michigan this weekend, be off the roads by noon Sunday.
This is a wind gust forecast for 4 p.m. Sunday. I've highlighted the darker orange areas as the area with 45 mph gusts or stronger.
The time period of questionable road conditions in Lower Michigan is Sunday afternoon and evening. There is a possibility of a flash freeze on the roads sometime Sunday afternoon or evening. One weather condition in our favor could be the strong winds. Sometimes these strong winds will blow dry the roads before they can freeze.
With wind gusts over 50 mph, there could be power outages across any part of Michigan.
We will keep you updated on changes on MLive. For now I’d recommend altering travel plans for Sunday afternoon and evening.
