Slick roads are expected to develop over far southern Lower Michigan with a period freezing rain tonight and Thursday morning.
A winter weather advisory over southern Michigan gives us a great, quick idea of where and when the very light accumulation of ice from freezing rain will occur. The farthest south two rows of counties from along I-94 southward are in the winter weather advisory for tonight and early Thursday morning. This includes Kalamazoo, Jackson, Ann Arbor and Detroit.
The radar forecast shows the mixed snow, sleet and freezing rain develop late this evening. While the ice accumulation will be very light, slick roads can develop quickly with just a light glaze of ice. Here’s the radar forecast from late this evening to mid-morning Thursday.
The wintry mix will develop in the middle of the night tonight. The orange colored area will be a mix of light snow, light sleet and light freezing rain. The purple area is when the precipitation changes over to mostly freezing rain, although amounts will be light.
The still frame at 4 a.m. gives us a good idea of how far north the freezing rain makes it in southern Michigan. Grand Rapids, Lansing and Oakland County will be the northern edge of freezing rain. Those northern edge areas will only have a few hundredths of an inch of ice accumulation. The more solid freezing rain should stretch from Jackson to Ann Arbor to Detroit and south to Michigan’s southern border. That stretch of southern Michigan could have up to one-tenth of an inch of ice accumulation.
Based on the radar forecast the iciness on roads will be most likely from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. Thursday…