After the heaviest snowfall of the season dumped more than 8 inches on the region, snarled traffic on area roadways and prompted dozens of school closures, Metro Detroit can expect a brief respite then another wintry blast to end the work week.
The National Weather Service calls for more cold Thursday, when the mercury should top out around 20 degrees before plunging into the teens under partly cloudy skies. Winds could reach up to 11 mph but there is only a 20 percent chance of light snow showers. Then Friday brings more snowfall but only about an inch, according to predictions Thursday by the National Weather Service.
A mere inch of snow should seem like a non-event compared to Wednesday when snow spreading over the region seemed to those shoveling out as if it would never end.
After years of surviving snow storms in Michigan, some locals were not worried about the snow.
“I’m used to this,” said Krystal Green, 63, of Oak Park. “I’m just not going to go out.”
Blustery conditions are in store for Friday.
“We certainly could see west winds in the 20-25 mile an hour range,” said Cory Behnke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service station in White Lake Township. “It looks like the best of the snow chances would move in here after 6 a.m., and would be lingering all day. Right now the accumulation looks like a total of around 1 inch.”
That’s at least the third batch of snow to coat the region since Monday, adding to the significant totals and causing headaches for travelers.
Wednesday’s storm quickly moved through southeast Michigan around rush hour and dropped plenty of the white stuff.
Some Metro Detroiters used to winter’s fickle nature were unfazed Wednesday.
“You don’t know how long this is going to last,” Josephine Johnson, 79, of Oak Park said after getting gas from the BP station on Nine Mile. “But just in case I have to go somewhere, I have gas.”
Snowfall totals reported to NWS through late Wednesday included 9.1 inches in Birch Run, 9 in Utica, 8.1 in Lake Orion, 8 in Rochester, 7.3 in Wixom, 6 in Ann Arbor, 5.7 in Livonia, 5 in Ypsilanti and 4.6 in Garden City.
Detroit Metro Airport had about 18 canceled flights and 278 delayed, according to flightaware.com.
Detroit’s public schools closed two hours early for the day. Officials there and in at least 56 other districts in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston counties said they would close today, after dozens closed Wednesday.
In addition to Detroit’s school district, others included Dearborn Public Schools, Farmington Public Schools, Romeo Community Schools and Howell Public Schools. The After School Recreation Program operated by the Detroit Recreation Department at nine district schools also were canceled for Thursday.
The city said its Department of Transportation was expected to run its full fleet of regularly scheduled buses, although customers should expect some delays.
A number of communities, including Oak Park, Highland Park, Dearborn, Ferndale, Auburn Hills and Sterling Heights, declared snow emergencies, which require people to move their parked cars from the street for snow plows.
Click below for school closings in Metro Detroit:
Meanwhile, as AAA Michigan issued a statewide call for commuter caution, the state Department of Transportation reported disabled vehicles and crashes on interstates throughout the evening. MDOT tweeted that a semitrailer was disabled on the ramp to the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit on Wednesday evening.
The snowfall kept Michigan troopers busy. “As of 5:45 p.m., we have 20 Troopers working, 8 working crashes and 1 crash pending MSP response,” Michigan State Police tweeted.
Roads crews also were on high alert. Officials said plow and salt trucks would work overnight to get at least the main roads cleared in time for the morning commute.
Detroit Department of Public Works Director Ron Brundidge said the department started deploying workers at 11 a.m. Wednesday.
Detroit Public Works plows 673 miles of major roads. The city has 10 new trucks that can hold 15 tons of salt at a time, but that usually gets a driver a mile and half of coverage.
The city said Wednesday evening that contractors were slated to begin plowing all residential streets by 4 a.m. Thursday. The contractors have 24 hours to plow 1,884 miles of residential streets, it said.
“Residents are asked to avoid on-street parking in residential areas, if at all possible, until contractors have completed their work to avoid being plowed in or hindering the work of plow drivers,” officials said in a statement.
Traffic on area freeways moved slowly as snow and ice coated the roads around rush hour. MDOT’s tweets alerted to crash after crash or disabled vehicles on most local freeways.
Some people were out Wednesday preparing for the storm.
“It’s about to get really cold, really fast so I went to Meijer and got some extra heaters and some medicine because you gotta be prepared this time of year,” said Darius Johnson, 46, of Detroit while at the Sunoco on Glynn and Rosa Parks Boulevard.
Deshawna Dorsey of Detroit wasn’t worried. “We have to be used to it by now living in Michigan and at least we’re having a bright Christmas,” Dorsey said. “Usually, it’s gray and gloomy throughout the days.”
Bill Bantom, director of the road maintenance division of the Wayne County Department of Public Services, said the county’s 117 of its 143 trucks were available and on the roads.
Speaking just after the 10 a.m. winter storm warning took effect, Leo Ciavatta, maintenance superintendent for the Macomb County Department of Roads, said the county had started applying a salt brine solution to bridges and ramps, which freeze before the roadway.
Macomb County is responsible for 1,700 miles of main roads, mile roads, freeways and state trunklines, and another 1,200 miles of subdivisions.
By mid-afternoon, about 45 to 50 trucks were expected on the roads, and the expectation is “round the clock” coverage for the next several days. Salt trucks pick up from four service stations and another storage facility placed throughout the county.
Craig Bryson, a spokesman for the Oakland County road commission, said the county, which oversees some 3,000 miles of roadway, would have a full complement of 106 salt trucks on the roads as the storm accelerated Wednesday.
Ciavatta and Bryson both said that while some cleanup can be done during the storm, the real work occurs after the snow stops falling.
The Oakland road commission expects to be occupied with clearing snow for the next several days, just as it was after the 4-inch snowfall over the weekend. That cleanup finally ended Tuesday evening, Bryson said.
“Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how much snow there is, the road has to be passable,” Bryson said. “But this is what we do.”
Crews in the county began working with a smaller force around 7 p.m. when about one third of the plow and salt truck drivers were sent home to get rest. The county typically has 106 plow trucks at its peak.
If the snow stops early Thursday, Bryson said the commission should be able to get its roads in “fairly decent shape” for the morning commute.
It’s been a snowy week. Between late Monday and early Tuesday, totals reported to the weather service included 5.8 inches in Ann Arbor; 4.9 in Berkley; 4.7 in Farmington Hills; 4.5 in Milford and Eastpointe; 4.4 in Garden City; 4 in Romulus, Brighton and Dearborn; and 3.1 in Roseville.
The high amounts are not so unusual for the last month of the year. On Dec. 11, 2016, Detroit Metro Airport reported 10.6 inches, a record for the date, according to the weather service.
Saturday should be dry and warm, with a high of 29 and a low of 22.
Snow showers are possible on Sunday, but much of the day could be spent near or above the freezing point. The high could reach 38 degrees, and a low of 28 degrees is expected, the National Weather Service said.
The Associated Press and Detroit News Staff Writer Mark Hicks contributed to this report.