DETROIT – While it was a cloudy day, temperatures Thursday afternoon ranging from the low 30s (0 degrees Celsius) in the northwest to the upper 30s (3 degrees Celsius) in the southeast were actually a little above long-term average highs for this date.
The clouds will hang around overnight, with some snow showers possible in the Thumb and some potential lake-effect flakes coming off of Lake Huron.
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During the night, the better snow shower chance is along the Lake Huron shoreline, down the St. Clair River, and across Ontario. Late Thursday night into Friday morning, a bit more of a northeast trend in the wind offers a better chance for some of those snow showers to push inland into the Thumb. Some of us will get a fresh coating of snow.
Lows Thursday night will be colder than the past couple of nights, with temps falling into the mid-20s (-5 to -4 degrees Celsius), with north winds at 4 to 7 mph.
Thursday evening’s sunset is at 5:24 p.m., and Friday’s sunrise is at 8 a.m.
Friday
Our Finally Friday, as Brandon Roux likes to call it, looks to be mainly cloudy, with just a few flurries possible for most of us, and some morning snow showers in the Thumb.
Temperatures may rise a bit, to around 30 degrees (-1 degree Celsius) by lunchtime, but then start falling during the afternoon as Arctic air starts pushing on in. It’ll become breezy, too, with a north wind increasing to 10 to 15 mph, so you’ll notice some serious bite to the air when you head outside, particularly during the afternoon.
Mostly cloudy Friday night, with lows not far from 10 degrees (-12 degrees Celsius).
Big weekend storm on track to miss us
I discussed Wednesday the major winter storm that’s going to miss us this weekend, and that’s still going to be the case.
The low itself (the “L” we show you on our weather maps) will drop southeastward from the Dakotas almost all the way to the Gulf Coast before turning east, and then northeast up into New England. The northern flank of the snow shield will miss us this weekend as the storm slides eastward well to our south, and then the western flank of the snow shield will miss us Monday as the storm goes up the east coast.
Obviously, things can change this far out, but as of Thursday afternoon, all the long-range computer models show the snow missing us.
So while we miss out, if you or anybody you know is planning to drive north or south on I-75 -- generally south of the Ohio River -- this weekend, or out east Sunday/Monday, you or they may want to readjust those plans, as travel will become treacherous.
Whether you are traveling or not, this storm will be very interesting to watch on the real-time radar in the Local4Casters weather app. If you’re one of the few who doesn’t have the nation’s best weather app, just search “WDIV” in the app store. It’s right there. It really is the nation’s best weather app, and I can say that because, unlike other stations who buy somebody’s generic app and just add their own branding, we designed the Local4Casters app ourselves. That’s why it has so many features that other weather apps don’t have (we asked for them, and our digital team said yes!). Best of all, the app is FREE!
Weekend forecast
As for our weather this weekend, we’ll start Saturday with clouds, but they will break up during the afternoon. Some of us will have more sun than others, but we’ll all become mostly clear by Saturday evening. It’ll be a cold one, though, with highs Saturday only in the upper teens (-8 to -7 degrees Celsius), and lows by dawn Sunday in the single digits (-15 to -13 degrees Celsius).
Sunday will feature lots of sunshine, with highs rebounding into the upper 20s (-2 degrees Celsius).
The MLK Day holiday on Monday looks mostly cloudy, but dry, with highs near 30 degrees (-1 degree Celsius).
Our next chance for some light snow is Tuesday night. Other than that, most of next week looks dry, but cold.