By Chris Easlick, Mathieu Mondro, Diane Phillips and Kyle Gillett
Published: Jan. 18, 2024 at 1:47 PM EST|Updated: Jan. 19, 2024 at 5:06 AM EST
SAGINAW, Mich. (WNEM) - A First Alert Weather Day has been issued for Friday as travel impacts are expected during the morning commute. We’ve already started to see snow sticking quickly this morning. Your morning commute and the morning bus routes to school are going to be disrupted. The snow is a typical advisory level event that we see a handful of times each winter, but the timing and existing road conditions this week with snow sticking easily has led us to issue this Alert Day.
As of this Friday morning update, delays are already running anywhere from 10 to 15 minutes. Delays will get longer as snow continues to accumulate through the morning, as well as with traffic picking up leading to this snow getting packed down and icing over.
Winter Weather Advisories are in place for Huron, Sanilac, and Tuscola Counties until 4 PM. For specific info, head to our Weather Alerts page. Additionally, keep tabs on the School Closings page in case we see delays or closings popping up.
Who Is Under A First Alert Weather Day?
Due to the placement of snowfall, the southeastern half of Mid-Michigan will be under the First Alert Weather Day on Friday. *Update* - We have added Midland and Isabella Counties to our Alert Day this morning due to the road impacts we’re currently observing there before sunrise. Snowfall is still expected across most of the area, but totals are expected to be higher in the red zone in the image below along with greater roadway impacts. Additionally, there will be a higher tendency to see lake-effect bursts in the red highlighted zones east of I-75 which will lead to bursts of lower visibility and quick snow accumulations.
Expected Impacts
This First Alert Weather Day is mainly based on the impacts you’ll experience during the morning drive, and depending on location, perhaps into the afternoon hours. We want to stress this has not been issued because of the amount of snow, a couple of inches would usually be considered a “run of the mill” snowfall for this area. The timing of this snow is going to be an inconvenience for the morning commute. With temperatures still in the teens, road crews are not able to use salt as effectively because of the level of cold. With road treatments not working as well, the snow has a much easier time sticking. Also, the snow that can melt from road traffic has a higher chance of freezing leading to icy patches.
Although this should be a steady snow, we do expect in some of the bands coming off of Lake Huron that snowfall rates of 0.5 to 1″ per hour will be possible at times. Reduced visibility is certainly possible.
Prepare for the morning commute to be impacted from the Great Lakes Bay Region to the Thumb, and south to the state line. Roads will still be difficult to travel in places from mid to late morning for your daily errands and plans, and still could be less than ideal at lunchtime Friday. These travel conditions and delays will be at a similar level to what was observed on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, especially if you’re a commuter who heads towards Metro Detroit.
Timing Of Snow
Snow has already started to pick up early this Friday morning in a steady fashion. There is some lake-effect beginning to pick up in Sanilac County too. The coverage of snow will be fairly widespread along US-10, through the Thumb, and our southern areas. The steady snow will continue through the morning commute. This snow becomes more scattered later in the morning and into the afternoon as it starts slowing down as a whole.
Lake effect snow showers will continue in the Thumb Friday afternoon and depending on wind direction, potentially into the evening and overnight at times, though a lower coverage than earlier in the day. We’ll also start to see those bands in the afternoon and evening turn towards the north, rather than moving in from the northeast.
Snowfall Expectations
Snow totals that we achieved last week in the heaviest areas, 10+ inches, are not expected, but could be a bit higher for locations in the Thumb relative to what you picked up last week. Counties north of US-10 will see light snow, up to an inch or so by Friday night, with areas farther to the northwest (Houghton Lake) likely coming in much lower (most likely around a trace).
The heaviest areas are the zones under a Winter Weather Advisory (Huron, Sanilac, and Tuscola), especially near the shoreline, where enhancement from Lake Huron is expected to be maximized. In the dark blue areas, 3-6″ of snow is possible. Advisories run until 4 PM Friday.
Southern and central Bay County and northwest Tuscola are tricky, as a longer lasting northeast wind could lead to some higher totals in these areas. However, that duration of the northeast wind hasn’t been as long in our afternoon data, so we’ve made those areas slightly lower than the Huron and Sanilac areas. Inland in the light blue, 1-3″ looks like a reasonable expectation. Lightest totals to the northwest as mentioned above.
Download the TV5 First Alert Weather app to get updates on conditions during tomorrow’s storm.
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