What We're Tracking:
Areas of High Water/Ponding on Roadways
Freeze Up This Evening
Lake Effect Snow...Heavy At Times (Especially Thursday and early Friday)
Low pressure will move northeast through the area this afternoon and behind it temps will fall. As we drop into the 30s rain showers will change to snow showers and roads will become slippery. That change over will happen northwest of Grand Rapids first and slowly move southeast, causing any standing water or wet, untreated roads to freeze. It will quickly become slippery this evening and tonight.
Snow showers this evening will be rather light, but some accumulations are possible as temps fall into the mid 20s by Midnight, and upper teens by Thursday morning. A Lake Effect Snow Advisory will start for the western two rows of counties (Newaygo, Kent, Barry, Kalamazoo) and locations west of there at 7 p.m.
Snow will pick up in intensity tomorrow with accumulations likely, heaviest near the lake. Temperatures will hold steady in the upper teens to near 20 and it will be breezy, sending wind chills to near zero. The morning and afternoon drives will be compromised, leave yourself plenty of extra time and plan on taking it slow.
Lake effect will continue Thursday night into Friday morning. By Friday afternoon lakeshore areas have the potential to see 6 to 12 inches of new snow with isolated higher amounts. Near and west of 131 we'll be in the 3 to 6 inch range, will 1 to 3 inches from Montcalm, Ionia, Eaton, and Calhoun Counties east.
More snow will fall over the weekend with temps in the 20.
FLOOD INFO
Heavy rain and ice jam contributed to flooding in Mecosta Township and Rogers Heights Wednesday.
People along Riverside Drive and 183rd Avenue were evacuated Wednesday afternoon as the Muskegon River rose between Rogers Heights and Big Rapids, according to emergency management officials.
Houses were flooding as the river exceeded its banks. At least a dozen residences on the east side of the river -- some of which are summer homes -- in Roger Heights have severe water damage.
Everyone on the east side of the river has been evacuated, including two elderly women who were rescued from the second story of a home by police.
"It is not unusual for ice jams to cause river levels to fluctuate by several feet in a very short period of time," according to the release.
Several emergency response agencies, including the Mecosta County Sheriff's Office, the local fire department and the emergency management service, are on the scene.
One witnesses said ice flowing down the river ripped apart anything in its path, including several docks.
