Lake effect snow continues to target the snow belts of Northwest Lower Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula Thursday morning.
NORTHERN MICHIGAN -- Lake effect snow continues to target the snow belts of Northwest Lower Michigan and the Eastern Upper Peninsula Thursday morning leading to whiteout conditions in localized areas along with ice covered roads.
The highest snow totals overnight came in from Luce/Mackinac/Chippewa counties with 11.5" reported at Paradise and 11" at Naubinway along with 10" at McMillan just west of Newberry. In Northern Lower Michigan, Bellaire leads the list with 9" of fresh snow, Mancelona along with Kalkaska have picked up 8". South Boardman in Kalkaska County tallied 8" overnight and 7" was reported at Lake Ann.
The biggest snow totals will be found in Northern Luce County along with Southern Antrim/Northern Kalkaska Counties Thursday with an additional 4-8" of snow expected here through early Friday. Locations away from the snow belts will see a lot less with less than an inch at Cheboygan, Alpena and Clare.
We often say this, but with lake effect snow, the effects are very localized. Some areas have decent roads and even a few peeks of sunshine poking through. However, the spots where these bands of intense lake effect snow target will continue to see whiteout conditions with glare snow packed ice on the roads. I attempted to make a school visit in Charlevoix today from Traverse City and had to turn around before even making it to Elk Rapids due to the horrible conditions on US-31.
The lake effect snow will slowly dwindle down to flurries by late Friday into Saturday.
High temperatures remain in the teens through Saturday before warming some back into the 20's Sunday through early next week.
