Winter Weather Advisory In Effect Through Thursday Afternoon
DETROIT (CBS Detroit) - Hold onto your hats. A winter weather advisory remains in effect through 1 p.m. Thursday in Metro Detroit.
The National Weather Service said snow squalls will produce between two and three inches of snowfall. Snowfall rates within the most intense snow bands will exceed one inch per hour. As a result, visibilities will be reduced to less than one half mile in some areas.
Wind gusts increasing to 45 miles per hour are also possible throughout the morning.
CBS 62 Chief Meteorologist Jim Madaus said travel conditions could become treacherous -- particularly in areas where the rain and snowmelt have left standing water.
Madaus said rain changing to snow could result in slippery conditions on untreated surfaces of already wet roads and walkways. The strong wind gusts could present hazardous conditions for morning drive motorists and pockets of power outages are possible.
Following an unseasonably warm, record-setting day in Detroit (the temperature around 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday was 62 degrees, breaking a record high of 53 set in 1969), temps will get back to normal for the remainder of the week.
Forecasters say the cold front coming will bring a half-inch to an inch of snow in southeast Michigan on Thursday and to five to eight inches in some areas to the west.
Craig Bryson, with the Road Commission for Oakland County, said the dramatic shift in temperatures has created chaos on some roads.
"The biggest problem we're facing is potholes and they're almost popping up before our eyes all over right now, and some pretty large ones in places where in some cases we've driven over just recently with no problems and then a few minutes later we'll get a report of a major pothole," he said.
The state's roller coaster weather, however, has been a boon for local businesses that make their money cleaning up after floods.
Derek Niederquell of Modernistic Cleaning and Water Restoration told WWJ's Sandra McNeil that, in many cases, the cold weather is freezing pipes, but no one noticed the problem until the warm weather thaws them out.
"It's been right around a hundred calls that we've received, and a lot of homeowners and business owners are finding their pipes to be gushing water all over their basements and upstairs levels," Niederquell said.
Niederquell said they have ten full crews working round the clock and another 20 on standby.
Here's the local forecast from the CBS Detroit Weather Team:
Thursday – Overcast with a chance of snow. Winds from the West at 20 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 20%. High of 21F, low of 12F with a windchill as low as -4F.
Friday – Mostly cloudy, then overcast in the evening. Winds from the West at 15 to 25 mph. High of 21F, low of 12F with a windchill as low as -4F.
Saturday - Overcast with a chance of snow. Winds from the West at 25 to 30 mph. Chance of snow 40%. High of 21F, low 10F with a windchill as low as -2F.
- Get the weekend forecast here -
Keep it tuned to WWJ Newsradio 950 for traffic and weather, every 10 minutes on the 8s. Check for road construction areas and recent traffic incidents on the CBS Detroit Traffic Page. Check the extended forecast and up-to-the-minute conditions on the CBS Detroit Weather Page.
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