WEST MICHIGAN — National Weather Service Winter Weather Advisories were in effect for Mecosta and Newaygo counties from 7 p.m. Saturday to 1 a.m. Sunday, and a Wind Advisory is posted for Branch, St. Joseph, Cass and Berrien counties from midnight to 8 a.m. Sunday. A number of counties were reporting freezing rain late Saturday night, and the Consumers Energy Outage Map showed widely-scattered outages in such areas as Hesperia, Grant Township in Newaygo County, Sparta, Kent City, Oakfield Township, and Dorr Township, among other communities.
The Winter Weather Advisory covers the potential for freezing rain to accumulate up to two tenths of an inch. This would be more than enough ice to casue slick travel this evening and overnight, and also a scattered power outage potential. Wind could also gust up to 40 mph tonight, elevating the power outage risk if ice does accumulate.
The Wind Advisory highlights the potential for wind gusts up to 45 mph overnight. While most of West Michigan could see 40 to 45 mph wind gusts tonight into tomorrow morning, those in the wind advisory have the best chance of hitting the 45 mph threshold triggering the headline.
If other counties are added to the advisories, an update to this post will follow. Outside of the wind and potential freezing rain, heavy non-freezing rain showers with even a few rumbles of thunder are likely tonight. A few cities could see up to an inch of rainfall.
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