Weekend Outlook: Snowy and cold, but it was a near miss

The colder than normal air and storm system moving through the lower Great Lake will bring snow to the Sault region this weekend. This storm has a similar configuration of a storm that hit the Sault region on Dec.9, 2009, where over 20 cm fell in the city in two days. This time the storm is just a little weaker, further away, and the solar energy is a little higher since we are still in November. This energy will give us just a little more warmth to help melt some of the snow that otherwise might have counted up to over 20 cm on Friday alone.

The snow arrives Friday morning and continues all day until about midnight. Temperatures will climb a couple of degrees above freezing, and this will cause melting and compaction of snow that does fall. 10-15 cm of snow may fall, but possibly up to half of that could melt. This melting is likely to cause slick, slushy road conditions. East winds during the day becoming stronger and out of the north by midnight.

Saturday will start partly cloudy in the morning with clouds moving in for the afternoon and evening. As the northerly winds in the morning become more westerly in the afternoon, the risk of snow squalls arrives to bring brief periods of isolated heavy snow in the early evening. With the windy conditions and temperatures below freezing all day, it will feel more like -10°C.

A chance for more snow arrives on Remembrance Day with the potential for another 2-5 cm. Temperatures should climb to near 1°C. The colder than normal temperatures hang on well into next week with the ongoing risk of light snow.