Dreaming of a white Christmas in metro Detroit? You may be in luck

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These two metro Detroit secret Santas have given away about $150,000 of their own money to unsuspecting recipients in the past 10 years. Detroit Free Press

With the past week's warm-up, metro Detroit was staring down patchy ice and mud for Christmas. But relief may be on the way for those who prefer their holiday like the Bing Crosby song.

"Confidence is increasing for snow across southeast Michigan for Sunday afternoon and evening," Christmas Eve, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Alex Manion in White Lake.

The forecast for Sunday calls for a 60% to 70% chance of snow south of I-94, with a 40% to 50% chance from I-69 in Flint south to I-696, he said.

Temperatures will drop throughout the weekend, with winds on Monday, Christmas Day, causing wind-chill concerns, Manion said. Though temperatures will be in the upper 20s  in metro Detroit, "it's going to be feeling more like the single digits on Christmas morning, and more like it's in the teens Christmas afternoon," he said.

The temperature drop will continue into Tuesday and Wednesday, with high temperatures in the upper teens to low 20s; overnight lows in the high single digits to low teens, Manion said. 

"In the wintertime, it's very common to see this happen," he said. "You have this dip of cooler air enter our region, and it's influence by the jet stream," bands of very strong winds in the upper atmosphere that move weather patterns throughout the globe, he said.

A chance of lake-effect snow exists Monday, with Tuesday and Wednesday looking dry, Manion said. A chance of off-and-on snow showers is in the forecast for Thursday and Friday, with high temperatures returning to the mid-to-upper 20s, he said.

Contact Keith Matheny: (313) 222-5021 or kmatheny@freepress.com. Follow on Twitter @keithmatheny.