As Alaska Digs Out, Detroit Waits For Winter; When Will It Arrive?

By Christy Strawser
CBS Detroit Managing Editor
With bright sunshine and highs in the 40s today and tomorrow, many are wondering when -- and if -- winter will start in metro Detroit.

The unseasonably warm weather is the opposite of national weather predictions this fall that said the Great Lakes would experience a colder and wetter-than-usual winter.

So what happened?

"It's all the upper levels of the atmosphere, the way it's set up right now, we're just in the mild sector," said WWJ-TV Chief Meteorologist Jim Madaus. "It's keeping everything moderate."

Madaus said it's about to change, though. "We'll see a northerly flow coming in Friday, colder air will filter in," he said.

There is a chance of snow Thursday and Friday and temperatures are expected to dip to the more January-appropriate 20-degree range. Check the CBS Detroit weather page for up-to-the-minute updates.

After that, it's unknown which way winter will twist -- toward the deep snow and raging winds predicted earlier in the season or back to the unseasonably warm weather.

"It could wobble back the other way again (to be warm), but sooner or later, winter will lock in, this is Michigan, winter will lock in, it's just a matter of when," Madaus said. "If you're missing the cold weather, this is Michigan, it will come."   

But take heart: You could live in Alaska.
 
About 70 members of the National Guard are helping Cordova, Alaska, dig out from 15 feet of snow that fell this winter. It made driving, and even leaving the house, impossible for some of the 2,000 people who live in the Alaskan fishing community.

Roofs are reportedly collapsing, some are trapped in their homes, emergency personnel are using spray paint to write traffic commands on the snow above buried street signs.

A snow melting machine has been imported.

At the same time, CBS This Morning reports the Alaskan city of Nome is waiting for a Russian tanker to deliver fuel by slicing a path through ice in the Bering Sea. The town is cut from the rest of the world by snow and ice.