NEWS

Snowy weekend, Polar Vortex-like temps ahead for metro Detroit

Ann Zaniewski
Detroit Free Press

A snowy weekend in metro Detroit will be followed by bone-rattling temperatures that could dip as low as the single digits.

The Wayne County's Roads Division showed off new trucks equipped with snow plows to battle winter on the roads of Wayne County on Wednesday, November 30, 2016.

One to 3 inches of snow is expected to fall starting Saturday morning into Sunday, said Alex Manion, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in White Lake Township.

"It’s possible to see a brief lull with the snow for the late morning hours on Sunday," he said. "However, that will be fairly short-lived."

Forecasters haven't yet estimated totals for the second wave of snow, expected to fall later Sunday into Monday. But Manion said there will likely be enough to impact travel.

Then the big news: A blast of frigid arctic air that will invade the Northern and Middle Plains and the Midwest by the middle of the week.

"We'll be feeling that big-time Wednesday," Manion said. "We're looking at much colder air coming in from Canada."

The cold will be similar in scale and magnitude to the infamous January 2014 Polar Vortex, meteorologist Ryan Maue of WeatherBell Analytics tweeted Wednesday.

A polar vortex is a large area of cold air high up in the atmosphere that normally lives over the poles (as its name suggests) but — thanks to a meandering jet stream — parts of the vortex can slosh down into North America, helping to funnel unspeakably cold air into the central and eastern U.S., like what's forecast next week.

In metro Detroit, daytime highs for Wednesday will be in the lower 20s. Low temperatures have the potential to dip down to the lower teens or the upper single digits.

Manion said on Thursday, highs are expected to be in the upper teens or low 20s, with lows in the lower teens.

"The cold air will be sticking around until later in the week," Manion said.

Contact Ann Zaniewski: 313-222-6594 or azaniewski@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @AnnZaniewski. Doyle Rice of USA TODAY contributed to this report.