Day 1 School Closing Outlook
Valid: Tuesday, January 28, 2025
Issued: Monday, January 27, 2025 8:00 PM
Summary:
Long story short, we apologize for the late issuance of this outlook, we were not really expecting the snow band that moved through a short while ago to be as intense as it was. While our overall confidence in any one area seeing school closures or delays tomorrow morning the gusty winds and heavy snow tonight certainly created some conditions that make snow days or delays a real possibility.
Discussion:
As aforementioned, we had an intense band of heavy snow move through the region earlier. While we had been watching this potential for much of the last 48 hours or so we were never really overly concerned with the impacts it might have created.
Needless to say, we were wrong, and it was certainly impactful, even prompting a Winter Weather Advisory to be issued for some counties. Additionally, the gusty winds today have led to sporadic power outages and some impressive snow drifts on North-South oriented roads, especially in open areas like fields.
Gusty winds continue as of 8:00 PM this evening with the Wind Advisory being extended until 10:00 PM. This will continue to create additional isolated power outages and continued areas of blowing and drifting snow. All of these factors lead to a low-confidence snow day possibility tomorrow across much of the area. While these conditions would normally warrant Purple 51-70% or even Pink 71-90% delineations (resultant of the level 5/6 wind threat) if the timing was more favorable, the lull overnight will give road crews a chance to clear up some roads. For this reason, we have opted for a purple 51-70% delineation across the open areas we believe will be most susceptible to drifting snow and a dark blue 31-50% delineation across much of the remainder of the area waning both with Southeastward extent and in/around the Grand Rapids metro area.
Schools that are without power or schools in rural areas that are most susceptible to blowing/drifting snow are the most likely to close or have delays. We have some reports in Ottawa County of impassible roads and this will likely cause some issues in the morning.
Graphical Forecast:
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