DETROIT (WWJ) - The flakes are now falling as a major winter storm threatens to dump anywhere from 3 to 12 inches of snow in Metro Detroit, less than a week after the same area was hit with a historic ice storm.
The National Weather Service has issued a Winter Storm Warning for all of Southeast Michigan, in effect from 1 p.m. Friday until 4 a.m. Saturday.
The NWS said the storm brings "a significant threat to property or life," as it is forecasted to bring very heavy snowfall rates around 2 inches per hour over a short period of time, which will challenge snow removal crews working to keep roads clear and make travel very difficult.
"This will be heavy, wet snow," NWS added. "Some thunder snow is possible."
The peak rates will occur Friday afternoon into Friday evening, hitting the rush hour hard around 5 p.m., followed by moderate snow after midnight, forecasters said.
"These heavy rates will be possible Friday afternoon into Friday evening and may impact the rush hour commute," the NWS warned. "Winds gusting to 45 mph may result in rapid reductions to visibility with snowfall."
While experts said uncertainly does exist in the forecast, residents need to be prepared for snow, sleet, ice or flooding rain as all are possible.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dean DeVore explained that the storm will be "multifaceted" with snow totals still difficult to pin down. So far, Metro Detroit could see just as few inches to almost a foot in the northern and western counties.
"There will be a sharp gradient for snowfall in many of the major metro areas from the Upper Midwest to the Northeast," DeVore said. "This is mainly due to a prominent wedge of warm air near and just south of the storm, but also dry air to the north of the system."
Places like Saginaw and Bay City were previously forecasted to get hit with eight to twelve inches of snow, but the snow totals shifted further south as the path of the storm became clearer on Thursday and Friday.
DeVore said snow totals will not be as high in Detroit and in the Downriver communities towards Toledo, as some of the precipitation will shift to some rain for a time, but any snowfall will be heavy.
"It is going to be really problematic," DeVore said.
The NWS said snow will begin to lift into Southeast Michigan beginning around 3 p.m. and hit Lenawee, Monroe and southern Wayne and Washtenaw Counties. The front will continue to move north where snow is expected to fall in Oakland, Livingston and St. Clair Shores by 4 p.m.
The snow will be light at first, but the NWS said don't let that fool you.
"The snow may struggle to accumulate initially until the intensity really picks up," meteorologists said. "Conditions will deteriorate rapidly once the snow begins."
Experts urged residents to refrain from traveling Friday evening and prepare for scatter power outages.
Residents are advised to monitor the latest updates to the forecast as they become available. The storm is forecasted to impact major airports in Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee where a large number of flight delays and cancellation are expected.
This all comes after one week ago Lower Michigan was hit with an ice storm that weighed down and damaged power lines, leaving 680,000 homes and business without power, including more than 630,000 in Metro Detroit.
As of Friday morning, DTE was reporting just over 3,000 outages, many of them scattered around Detroit. Some of the outages are not from the initial storm, but from freezing rain that came through on Monday.
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