On Monday, SaultOnline.com reported of a major winter storm with blizzard conditions developing for Thursday night into Friday night. As of right now, the storm is forecast to begin late Wednesday with 2 to 4 cm of snow expected, this snow is in advance of the heavier bands of snow for Thursday.
Thursday morning the low pressure will deepen as it moves into the Great Lakes region. Winds will be strong and gusty from the south. This will help bring our temperatures back up but it likely won’t do much due to windchill. The heavy snow should hold off until Thursday afternoon. About 5cm is expected Thursday night with a lot of wind.
The heaviest of the snowfall should hit the Sault overnight Thursday into Friday morning. Winds will continue to be from the south, so some mixing of drizzle, freezing rain and snow will stick around for all day Friday. Total accumulation is expected to be 10 to 15cm by late Friday.
Temperatures will nose dive on Saturday from plus 1c on Friday to -8c Saturday as the winds transition to a WNW flow ushering in an arctic blast that will give windchill values of -20c. That could lead to additional accumulation on Saturday from lake effect or snow squalls. Another 5 to 10cm is likely.
The blizzard conditions at this point looks to favour the eastern and northern shores of Lake Superior as well as the north shore of Lake Huron towards Blind River and Espanola. Those conditions should develop late Thursday into Friday morning. Snow accumulation for areas between Heyden and White River could exceed 40cm .
Expect highway closures on both the northern highway 17 and east towards Sudbury.
Lake effect snow and or snow squalls remain in the forecast until at least Monday.
