I just read Bill's Blog (woodtv) and he said that we will be upgraded to a storm warning by tonight with Blizzard conditions...
Glad I restuffed some shavings for the girls out back....
Following is cut and paste from his blog...
Winter Storm Warning will be issued this PMFebruary 7th, 2010 at 10:30 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<*US Warning Map. This could be the biggest synoptic event of the
winter for southern Michigan. Monday AM update: Winter Storm Watch
for 6-12* over 36 hours starting early Tuesday AM. This is going to be upgraded to a warning this PM. It*s already a Warning (pink color on the map) for the counties that border Indiana. The Watch covers all of our area*all of Indiana and Illinois and most of Wisconsin and Ohio.
Here*s NAM model snowfall and GFS model snowfall. Latest GFS plot
gives us about 0.60 precip. with the snow starting around daybreak
Tuesday. At a 15-1 snow to water equivalent * that would be 9* of
snow for G.R. It may snow a little harder Tues. Night than during the day Tuesday, esp. NE of G.R. Schools likely open on Tuesday. Tuesday into Wednesday morning will be snowy with snow covered roads.
Snowplowers*.salting/sanding may be necessary for the AM rush hour on
Tuesday*2* on the ground by Tuesday
evening * more SW of G.R*.6*+ by Weds. AM. Schedule errands for today if you can. GFS plot has nothing warmer than mid 30s through Feb.
23. The NAO is in the tank negative and the Arctic Oscillation stays negative*evidence that winter*s going to hang on probably all or almost all of the rest of this month and maybe into March*no significant thaws. Remember I said that the two years that we had the most similar patterns to this year*we had above normal snowfall in Feb.-March with 8*+ snowstorms in both February and March and the cold air hanging around through the first part of March. This storm will also produce significant snow in the big cities of the East, with New York and Boston getting in on the action this time. Another storm Friday/Saturday will likely bring snow all the way down to Dallas and maybe Atlanta. All time biggest 24-hour snowfalls for Grand Rapids in February: 11.4* 2/3/2007, 9.1* 2/11-12/1985.
61% of the Lower 48 States has a snow cover this morning. Also, officially we have only had one day (1/25) since 12/3 when we have not had at least 1* of snow on the ground in Grand Rapids at 7 AM.