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Metro Detroit weather: Will next week bring the year’s first major snowfall?

Light snow showers possible this weekend

DETROIT – Lake-effect snow bands impacting the Lake Huron shoreline will gradually end Friday night, as the wind settles down to near calm.

Skies will also start a clearing trend and, by dawn, many of us will be mostly clear (some in the Thumb may still have some lingering clouds). These outstanding radiational cooling conditions will send temperatures well down into the single digits (-17 to -13 degrees Celsius) overnight.

Friday’s sunset is at 5:43 p.m., and Saturday’s sunrise is at 7:49 a.m.

Winter storm out East

An historic winter storm is starting to take shape out East, and it’ll bring some of the heaviest snowfall in years to parts of coastal New England.

Boston still appears to be ground zero, with true blizzard conditions developing Saturday: heavy snow (potentially falling at a rate of three-inches-per-hour) combined with wind that could exceed 50 mph).

Remember that you can watch this storm on the Local4Casters weather app -- our real-time radar is color-coded just like what we show you on TV so you know who’s getting snow, rain and ice. Just pan and zoom the radar map with your fingers to focus on the area you’re interested in! If you’re one of the few who doesn’t have the nation’s best weather app, head over to the App Store and search “WDIV” -- you’ll see it right there.

As I’ve been telling you all week, we may have our own storm of note to deal with next week. I’ll get to that in a moment.

Weekend forecast

Saturday will begin mostly sunny for most of us, with any lingering overnight clouds breaking up, as well. Clouds will then increase once again by mid- to late afternoon.

Still, we should get a good deal of sunshine, which always helps on a cold day. Highs once again will only reach the upper teens (-7 degrees Celsius). Fortunately, the southwest wind that develops will only blow at 4-8 mph.

Some light snow showers will cross the area overnight Saturday into Sunday, with lows near 10 degrees (-12 degrees Celsius).

Cloudy on Sunday, with a few flurries or very light snow showers possible. Highs rebound into the mid-20s (-3 degrees Celsius).

Early next week

Monday and Tuesday look mostly cloudy, but also mostly dry.

Highs Monday in the upper 20s to near 30 degrees (-2 to -1 degree Celsius), and near 40 degrees (4 to 5 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday. That’ll feel like a veritable head wave!

Winter storm ahead

Friday’s long-range computer models have trended much flatter with the jet stream pattern for the middle of next week. Instead of a nice ridge (northward bulge) over the Great Lakes, the flatter pattern means a colder pattern. As such, these models suggest that the majority of the precipitation we get will be snow, and it could be a lot of snow, which would come in two waves: one Wednesday and one Thursday.

I want to caution you that this is a long-range outlook, not a specific forecast. There are many facets to this developing pattern that could change (especially since the upper-level disturbance that will trigger this storm is still way out in the Pacific, where we don’t have much upper air data to analyze it).

If the pattern continues shifting farther south, then this entire thing could miss us. Or, if subsequent computer model runs start pushing it back to the north, then rain and ice return to the equation for some of us. But Friday’s models are in relative agreement that this will be quite a snowstorm for us.

I never sound an alarm this far in advance, and I won’t this time, either. All I’m doing is explaining a possibility. We will keep you updated on Local 4, ClickOnDetroit.com and our Local4Casters weather app but, for now, just be aware of this potential.

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