Rain, Wind, Ice then Snow: West Michigan Winter Storm on the Way
A variety of winter weather will affect several areas in West Michigan from Wednesday through early Friday morning. Several weather alerts have been issued for counties in the region.
The National Weather Service has issued a Wind Advisory for Allegan, Barry, Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Eaton, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Van Buren Counties until 7:00 Wednesday evening.
The National Weather Service has also issued a Winter Storm Watch for Berrien, Branch, Calhoun, Cass, Eaton, Kalamazoo, St. Joseph, and Van Buren Counties from 10:00 Thursday morning until 1:00 Friday morning.
Flood Watches have also been issued from counties along the Michigan/Indiana border
This will begin as a wind and rain event, with heavy showers and temperatures warming to the upper 40s for Wednesday. Rain along with melting snow could cause flooding, especially in areas prone to it. Wind is expected to be sustained at 20 to 30 mph with gusts reaching 45 mph at times. Gusty winds could blow around unsecured objects. Some tree limbs could come down and a few power outages may result.
Late Wednesday and early Thursday, the rain will start to transition to sleet and freezing rain. This could lead to some light ice accumulations in time for the morning commute on Thursday.
During the day Thursday, the freezing rain will transition to snow, heavy at times, as temperatures fall from morning highs in the mid-30s. Snow showers will eventually end late Thursday or early Friday. Total snow accumulations from the storm forecast between 4" and 8" with some areas possibly seeing double-digit snow amounts. Then it will turn cold with low temps Friday morning around 5 degrees and wind chills below zero.
We will continue to monitor the situation and provide any updates as they become available.
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