GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — We are heading into a cold and snowy St. Patrick's Day Weekend here in West Michigan! Where is the luck of the Irish when we need it?
Friday night and early Saturday lake effect snow will pick up in intensity and continue throughout most of the day Saturday. A widespread 2+ inches of snow is expected with isolated higher amounts of 4+ inches.
Now, where exactly those higher amounts of snow land will be highly dependent on where the bands end up setting up. It's important to remember that this will be lake effect snow, which means that just a couple miles down the road could have very little snow while some locations experience multiple inches.
This is why the National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory, in effect from now through 2 a.m. Sunday. We should plan on slippery roads, patchy blowing snow, and reduced visibility during this event.
Needless to say, if you have any St. Patrick's Day plans this Saturday, make sure you bundle up and plan for slick roads.
In addition to the snow, we should expect some of the coldest air in weeks to settle into the region for Saturday. Highs will not make it out of the 20s, and wind chill values will be in the low single digits to low teens all day long.
The good news is that this cold, snowy and windy weather won't last for very long. Sunday brings mostly sunny conditions back to the region and highs return to the upper 30s. Winds will still be a bit breezy at 8 to 18 mph.
-- Meteorologist Samantha Jacques
6-10 Day Outlook
Wed. Mar. 23 through Sun. Mar. 26 calls for near average temperatures and above average precipitation. Average highs are around 48-49° with an average precipitation of 0.40" and average snowfall of 0.7".
8-14 Day Outlook
Fri. Mar. 24 through Thu. Mar. 30 calls for near average temperatures and above average precipitation. Average highs are around 48-51° with an average precipitation of 0.60" and average snowfall of 0.8''.
Have a 30-second video or photo to share? We'd love to share it with everyone! Share your images by texting your name and location to 616.559.1310 or email to Weather@13OnYourSide.com or post it to our 13OnYourSide Facebook Page
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.