A dusting of snow greeted residents of northern Michigan and sections of
the state's Upper Peninsula Friday. The late-season snow has occurred
within the same unusually chilly late-season air mass which could
produce near freezing temperatures in sections of the Chicago metro area
away from the lake Friday night - and subfreezing readings Saturday
night away from the lakeshore. Our thanks to meteorologist John Dee, who
forwarded this snow image from a Michigan trail cam he operates south of
Houghton in South Range. John reports this is the first measurable snow
to fall in that area since March 20 and the first flurries to be observed
there since March 31. He notes that parts of the U.P.'s Keweenaw
Peninsula have seen 280" of snow this snow season - though March and
April have hosted above-normal temperatures.
A few wet snowflakes or some mixed ice pellets can't be ruled out
in lake-effect rain showers predicted in the lake-effect precip belt of
extreme northeast Illinois and northwest Indiana Saturday. In addition,
some instability showers may develop in scattered inland sections of
Illinois and Wisconsin, given the rapid vertical temperature drop predicted
Saturday as a result of the arrival of unusually cold air aloft. They
too could feature some mixed ice pellets of a snowflakes. Metro area
temps this weekend are to run more than 30 degrees below the levels
observed away from Chicago's lakeshore last Saturday and Sunday.
-- Tom Skilling
