TOLEDO, Ohio — The WTOL 11 Weather Team has issued an ALERT DAY for both Friday and Saturday ahead of a potential major winter storm for our entire area. So what exactly goes into the science of forecasting a winter storm so far in advance? Meteorologist Ryan Wichman broke down some of the major points.
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The first step is to identify where the storm current is and the environment around it. On Tuesday, the late-week storm was sitting off the coast of Alaska, which is a common location for winter storms that head toward our area initially develop.
From there, the storm rode along the gradient of warm air to the south, bringing very cold air to the northern United States. This path also allows the storm to pick up a tremendous amount of moisture off the Gulf of Mexico which is what will lead to the heavy snow and rainfall potential.
This strengthening storm will also quickly deepen, which is a term to describe a low pressure system that is quickly dropping pressure. This dropping of pressure will lead to increasingly gusty winds late Friday and into early Saturday.
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Wind gusts over 40mph appear very likely through early Saturday morning. Wrap around moisture with this storm and a wind directly off Lake Michigan will allow for continued scattered snow showers into Saturday as well.
As the system departs it will open the arctic doors for very cold air to settle across the Great Lakes. The coldest winter stretch in several years appears possible next week with highs struggling into the teens and wind chills well below zero for several days in a row. Start preparing now for the harshest two weeks of this winter which are likely on the way starting this week.
