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Record Cold Likely Wednesday Night

Posted at 9:16 AM, Mar 12, 2014
and last updated 2014-03-12 09:16:12-04

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (Mar. 12, 2014) — Winter has made its return to West Michigan in impressive fashion Wednesday, leaving heavy snow in some places, with falling temperatures in the forecast through Wednesday night.

Bands of heavy snow moved through the region overnight into early Wednesday.  Existing moisture on the roads turned to ice with falling temperatures overnight, followed by snow accumulating on top of that icy pavement.  This combination led to some very difficult driving conditions.  Snow accumulations were minimal for the northwestern sections of the FOX 17 viewing area, but were already in excess of six inches around Kalamazoo and Battle Creek.

Some sun is expected to return Wednesday afternoon and evening, but temperatures will continue to drop.  And with that clearing in conjunction with diminishing winds overnight, temperatures will bottom out near zero in most of West Michigan.

It won’t be all that difficult to set a new record low in Grand Rapids Thursday morning; the old record is 5° set way back in 1926.  The Muskegon record of 2° may be a bit more of a challenge.

Despite the shot of very cold air, temperatures will start climbing late Thursday and end up back in the 40s on Friday.  A couple waves of light precipitation will be possible once again from Thursday night into the first part of the weekend.

You can check out the remainder of the 7 Day Forecast on the Weather page.