Sheesh, GRR's AFD reads like it's middle of winter..
.DISCUSSION...(Today through next Friday)
Issued at 305 AM EST Sat Nov 9 2019
We have three significant weather events to watch in the next
week. First is the jet lift event Sunday night into midday Monday.
All the models have some version of this event but given how
often we get a significant precipitation event when we are in the
entrance region of a 140 to 150 knot jet core as a surface wave
develops on the front to our south, I would say we may well see
enough snow Sunday into into midday morning to cause significant
travel issues near and south of I-96. The latest run of the ECMWF
has between .25 and .40 inches of water falling as snow south of a
line from Lansing to Kalamazoo. We need to watch this to see how
this plays out since the jet causing this is part of the reason we
get all that cold air Tuesday into Wednesday.
The polar jet that causes that surface wave Monday finally gets
east of here Monday evening. It is at that time we get into the
really deep cold air and inversion heights rise above 10,000 ft.
Since we have an east coast storm at that point, winds through 700
mb will mostly be from the north or north northwest Monday night
into early Wednesday. So, this will create a narrow but intense
dominant lake snow band that for the most part will stay near and
west of US-131 Monday night into early Wednesday. AT locations
like South Haven there is strong lift centered in the DGZ, which
is in the 2000 ft to 5000 ft layer (where the clouds will be).
This could be a warning class event (over a very narrow area)
during this time. Winds will be 15 to 25 mph with gusts over 30
mph with heavy snow falling for many hours in locations like
South Haven and Covert.
Meanwhile inland of that due to the north winds and the dominant
snow band not much will happen, it will just be cold! Maybe a few
flurries or light snow showers but not much accumulation. Record
low highs are in the mid to upper 20s (27 at Grand Rapids and
Muskegon, 29 Lansing and Baldwin, 26 Jackson) so record low highs
are more than possible. Even if the sun comes out at inland sites.
There is of course another upstream Pacific system that moves into
the Pacific Northwest Tuesday night. That boots this cold air
system east and brings warmer (relative to Tuesday and Wednesday)
air back to the area. The warm advection snow event is more than
possible Thursday. If that happens most of the area would see 2 to
4 inches of snow before afternoon temperatures warm into the 40s
Friday into the following weekend.