WEST MICHIGAN — We can call this our second winter storm of this season, but this too was a bit disappointing for those of us waiting for heavy snow of six inches or more. Moisture surging north in to Michigan Saturday evening began as rain and stayed that way for several hours from Grand Rapids to the south. The arrival of Arctic air was delayed and the changeover to snow didn’t occur for hours later. That means the .50″ of rain we received would have been five inches of snow, but instead was in liquid form. All warnings and advisories have been canceled for our area today except for BERRIEN and CASS Counties…they remain under a WINTER WEATHER ADVISORY for the possibility of one to three inches of lake-effect snow. See image below.
The warnings and advisories are not always issued for just snowfall totals. While many of us may have missed out on heavy snow, the other component of this system we need to be aware of are the strong winds (northwest at 15 – 25) and the Arctic air that is blasting in! Already early Sunday morning temperatures across the lake in Milwaukee and Chicago are in the teens, while further north/west in Minneapolis temperatures are below zero. See image below.
Some of the snowfall totals reported in this far have Grand Rapids and vicinity around two inches, while further north White Cloud in Newaygo County tallied about four inches. Most locations from Grand Rapids to the north/west picked up about two to five inches with only an inch or so to the south/east of Grand Rapids. We’ll see lake-effect snow showers with some minor accumulations today, especially along/west of U.S. 131. Our next significant system arrives Monday night in to Tuesday.
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