Say It Isn't Snow: Weather Outlook for Dearborn

Here’s the potential good news: Forecasters don’t expect a repeat of the polar vortex that brutalized Michigan last year.

The bad news, according to some computer models, is that a heavy band of snow could come to the Mitten by midweek.

“Certainly the outlook is a less severe winter (than last),” Dave Gurney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in White Lake Township, told the Detroit Free Press. “Forecasting less cold and a little less snowy. It almost looks like a normal winter.”

Last year was the snowiest and sixth-coldest on record in Michigan.

There’s always a “but” in the forecast, and it comes from the GFS (Global Forecast System) and ECMWF (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). Their models are showing a narrow band of heavy snow across the country from central Iowa to Detroit.

“Models have been hinting at the idea of a cross country winter storm impacting much of the Midwest for a few days now, and confidence is on the rise that we will,in fact, see a mid November winter storm,” MidwestWeather.com says. “As with any system the track and amount of moisture to work with will be key in the extent of which accumulations occur. Most of the major medium range models have at least a band of 6-12” draped across the Midwest. …”

A Canadian model suggests the storm could deliver 16 or more inches of snow.

Though it’s difficult at this point to pin down the exact track of the storm system, “it does appear that winter will make an early entrance,” the MidwestWeather.com said.

The National Weather Service in Detroit in calls for a chance of rain and snow showers Monday and Monday night, and says snow is likely on Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11.

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