Winter storm coming to metro Detroit - 8am update

We're going to start off with the wind forecast. It is a dry morning. The wind is going to increase as the day goes on. Now the strongest wind gusts are also going to accompany the strongest or I should say the heaviest snowfall and the most amount of accumulating snow that we're going to get between 5 p.m. and midnight. Kind of the same window there.

That's when the strongest wind gusts are going to be around 40 miles per hour stays windy though overnight. The wind is going to get lighter basically by sunrise tomorrow and we'll get some gusts just around 20 miles per hour tomorrow morning. So strong winds later today tonight ending very early tomorrow morning. Here's what it looks like on the radar right now. Low pressure strengthening over Arkansas and Missouri. Now that one will eventually track into Ohio later on today. It's going to pick up some speed and as it does so then our chances of some heavier snow is going to be going up severe threat south of us again.

Kentucky and Tennessee threat of tornadoes today. So we're on the winter side of this storm system. The northern edge of it snow moves in from the south to the north through the afternoon. It may seem around an inch of snow by 5 p.m. But some areas north of Detroit may not even see the snow until around two or three o'clock or so. Then we get after 5 p.

m. That's when bands of some heavier snow sets up strong easterly or northeast early winds gusting around 40 miles per hour. So heavy snow and wind gusts like that means reduced visibility. And so as we talk about traveling, getting travel, getting disrupted and travel being difficult. It's not just because of snow accumulating on the roads. It's going to be low visibility and strong wind gusts that are coming with all this. There's also a real distinct rain snow line.

This is through 8 p.m. And it's a question of where this rain snow line is going to be. It's really only a difference of a degree or two. But if it transitions to all rain, obviously that's going to really cut down on snow totals around Monroe County and through the down river area, even southern Wayne County, where maybe there's only a couple of inches of snow there. But if this shifts just slightly to the southeast, even by as little as 10 miles, if the low moves 10 miles farther southeast than some of the models are showing, then we're looking at colder air and instead of heavy rain, it's heavy snow. Then you're still talking about five, six inches of snow.

I think there's going to be a real sharp gradient where we go from eight, nine, 10 inches of snow to just going about 20 miles south and then that ends up being about five or six inches less. So that's what we're focused on today is really higher snow amounts north and west of Detroit, lower to the south, but you're still going to get some heavy rain, some sleet, even some thunder. You may hear some rumble is a thunder this evening. Thunder snow not out of the question either by the way, because the storm system so dynamic is low pressure, so strong five to eight inches of snow around Western Wayne County, get through Farmington Hills up to Oakland and and Livingston County. Then you're looking at eight to 10 inches of snow, basically from Pontiac West and Pontiac North. But with the rain mixing in maybe as little as two inches of snow down river and Monroe, but there's still a lot of uncertainty there. So that's whether the spread is still two to as much as five down river Southern Wayne County through Monroe County tomorrow.

This is all done by about midnight tonight and tomorrow is going to be partly sunny, still breezy in the morning, but why to win the afternoon? It's gonna be a comfortable afternoon for early March 41 degrees still chilly, little milder Sunday, 44 degrees with the sun is out. Monday comes with the chance of rain to the temperature all the way up to 50 degrees. So we're gonna be melting the snow in the afternoons through the rest of the weekend after tonight's snow than Tuesday 43 next week. Highs in the upper thirties Wednesday and Thursday. Allie.

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