Northern Michigan Recreation Weather

We got hit pretty good yesterday in the north. Winds and snow caused lots of drifting and low visibility. Here is a link to a summary on the NWS Gaylord office. So now we have another storm coming today. While most of the snow looks like it will fall along the east side of the state, there will be snow over all of northern Michigan. So will be heaviest overnight and into Friday, so travel could be an issue. Otherwise…

Once you are up north, the weather will be pretty nice with some lake effect snow. Temperatures on Saturday and Sunday will be in the lower 30s, but probably be below freezing for most of the region. Night temperatures will be in the 20s which will be good for snow making at the ski resorts.

Snowmobilers should have a great weekend as the snow will continue and as long as the groomers stay out on the trails, I would expect good trail conditions. However, since I don’t own a sled, see the links to the right for more expert opinions.

The Cross country skiers should have a good weekend as the snow will be great if it is tracked. With the temperatures in the lower 30s, though you will have to wax for stickier snow probably. If you have no wax skis, then some sort of silicone/Teflon water repellent liquid so that the soft snow doesn’t stick.

Sunday afternoon and evening looks good for traveling back home.

The 8-14 day outlook looks a little troublesome though. For the week of 7-14 February 2008, the temperatures are expected to be slightly above normal and above normal for precipitation. We’ll see how February turns out. I’ll see if I can remember to put out something on the month once the CPC people put out the February outlook.

The weekend will be a weekend of change as the temperatures are expected to rise into the 30s by Sunday. So if you are wanting to nice weather, not too cold, but not losing the snow, then this weekend will be good.

Otherwise, there will be light snow on Friday night after midnight and into Saturday. The temperatures will be in the 20s on Saturday so a nice day.

Sunday, no precipitation is expected and the temperatures will get into the 30s. So a nice day for playing in the afternoon, before heading home.
Don’t fret about the warm weather though. After Wednesday temperatures will drop back to the normal high temperatures of the lower to mid 20s. The 8-14 day outlook (Valid: February 01 2008 to February 07 2008) looks good too, with near normal temperatures expected and above normal precipitation.

The return of fluffy snow!

Looking at the two graphics, there is low pressure moving through the western Great Lakes today. This will bring more snow especially tonight, but as the second graphic shows, the low moves into the eastern Great Lakes and sets up the conditions needed for lake effect snow.

Looking at the snow amount forecasts, there will be a pretty good amount of snow that will fall over the next couple of days. Because this is lake effect snow, the snow will be very fluffy making for good powder.

As always, the snow we got last night and will continue to get over the weekend will make for great skiing. That’s for both nordic and alpine. The wetter snow from earlier this week is now frozen and I’m assuming the groomers have been out, so with the new snow that we received and the snow expected, snowmobiling will be pretty good this weekend as well. This will last into the next week with high temperatures expected in only the teens.

One caveat to add to the forecast, This will be the coldest air of the season with below zero low temperatures for Sunday and Monday morning. High temperatures are expected to struggle to get out of the single digits above zero for the weekend.

Travel will be a little tricky coming up here. The State Police have a special notice on their road conditions page and that will probably continue through the weekend. Expect that the roads will probably be unchanged in conditions through the weekend, except that any secondary roads will probably not be plowed over the weekend, due to budget problems at the county level up north.

The last two weeks have been somewhat miserable. We lost all of our snow about a week ago, then we got about 5 to 6 inches of snow which was wet and have been getting about an inch or so of wet snow that last day or so.

So looking at this link, you see the snow depth. Not bad. However, we are about to embark on a ride back into the icy clutches of winter…otherwise known as a pattern change with some really cold air.

Yes, It looks like the jet stream is going north into Alaska, which means it will dive south into the continental US and the Great Lakes. High temperatures by Friday will be in the teens (Just mouse over the Friday Highs). And if you like the snow and cold, then the 8-14 day outlook is for you. It is showing below normal temperatures for the last half of the month which usually produces lake effect snow. So if you like the snow, the next couple of weeks looks good for the snow machines and the skiers.