BEWARE!!! A Winter Storm Warning Has Been Issued for a Second Storm with Up to 18 Inches of Snow and Winds of 60 mph

 BEWARE!!! A Winter Storm Warning Has Been Issued for a Second Storm with Up to 18 Inches of Snow and Winds of 60 mph

Even as thousands of Michigan residents were still waiting on Saturday morning, December 26, for their power to be restored following a Friday ice storm, the National Weather Service (NWS) was forecasting another winter storm from late Sunday through Tuesday, December 29–31.

“An impactful storm system will move into Michigan from Sunday into early next week, bringing accumulating snow, strong winds, and blowing snow,” the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids said on Facebook. “The best chances for heavy snow will be across the Upper Peninsula and the snowbelt areas of Lower Michigan.

“Rain may mix with snow in parts of Lower Michigan during the day on Sunday before changing over to snow Sunday night into Monday. Snow totals and the overall strength of this storm system remain uncertain, so be sure to monitor updates,” the NWS added.

“The next storm will intensify as it moves into the Great Lakes region on Sunday, creating widespread impacts across the Midwest and Northeast. Heavy snow and strong winds are expected in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and parts of Michigan, which could lead to blowing snow, whiteout conditions, and hazardous travel through Monday,” said Courtney Travis, a senior meteorologist with AccuWeather, in a statement provided to Men’s Journal.

Travis added, “In the Northeast, this storm will be warmer than the post-Christmas system, with many inland areas more likely to see freezing rain rather than snow. Ice accretion is expected across northern Pennsylvania and parts of New York and New England from Sunday night into Monday before transitioning to rain.”

As someone who hates cold weather, I feel compelled to include this section for anyone in the region who also despises the cold as much as I do.

And I hope you managed to get outside over the past few days, because the warm temperatures we recently experienced and enjoyed around Christmas will soon come to an end.

This winter storm will open the ‘floodgates’—or rather, the ‘cold-air gates’—allowing very cold air to surge into the Plains, the Midwest, and eventually the South and East over the coming days.

In some locations, temperatures will drop by 30 to 40 degrees.

Take Minneapolis and Des Moines, for example, which are expected to see high temperatures of 35 and 43 degrees, respectively, on Sunday. By Monday, their highs will plunge to below 20 degrees.

Chicago is expected to reach highs around 50 degrees on Sunday, while St. Louis will enjoy a pleasant high of up to 71 degrees. By Monday, however, neither city is expected to rise above the 20s.

As of Saturday morning, more than 28,000 electricity customers in Michigan were still without power after Friday’s ice storm left an ice coating of about one-tenth of an inch. Outages had peaked at around 50,000 on Friday afternoon.

On Saturday morning, the NWS office in Detroit said the system would bring much colder air and windy conditions beginning on Monday.