(WWJ) A winter storm that was originally predicted to drop just a dusting to 3 inches of snow on Metro Detroit, left 5 to 6 inches on the ground.
Roads and freeways remained snow-covered and slick to start Thursday — making for a slow and dicey morning commute in many spots.
Thousands of K-12 students have the day off as school districts cancelled classes for Thursday, due to poor road conditions. Many local colleges and universities are also closed for the day, including Oakland Community College, Oakland University, Henry Ford College, and Macomb Community College. Wayne State University said it would "transition to remote operations" due to the weather.
AccuWeather Meteorologist Joe Lundberg said the snow — which started falling Wednesday afternoon and continued overnight — just hit much harder than expected.
"It just kept snowing and snowing and snowing Wednesday, piling up as much as five and six inches of snow especially in the northwest suburbs," Lundberg told WWJ's Chris Fillar, Thursday morning.
Officials snow totals from the National Weather Service show 5 inches of snow fell in Wixom, 5.8 inches piled up in Rochester, 5.6 inches in Macomb County's Shelby Township, and 5.5 inches in Livonia. Ann Arbor is digging out from 6 1/2 inches of snow, and there was 6 inches total recorded at Detroit Metro Airport.
There have been many reports of crashes across the WWJ listening area.
Officials with the MSP Second District, said troopers across the district has already handled 75 reported crashes, before the end of the morning commute.
Speaking to WWJ's Pat Vitale, MSP First Lt. Mike Shaw said most of these crashes were single-car spinouts.
"We really want people to slow down and drive for those roads conditions, because all the crashes we had were all preventable," Shaw said. "...People going too fast, or somebody rear-ending the person in front of them because they're just following too close."
Taylor, Pontiac and Dearborn were among the cities that declared snow emergencies, meaning residents had to move their cars off city streets so plows can clear the snow.
Many people received a Public Safety Alert from the city of Taylor regarding its snow emergency. It's unclear why the alert went out to all of Wayne County. It was unclear early Thursday morning why the alert went out across the county.
Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud took to social media shortly after saying:
"Dear Taylor - thanks for the heads-up on the snow emergency here in Dearborn 😂For everyone else: Dearborn’s snow emergency goes into effect at 4 am Thursday morning. Please make sure all vehicles are cleared from city streets so crews can do their work."
AccuWeather was forecasting a bit of snow and flurries to start Thursday with little additional accumulation. It will become partly sunny later Thursday, but it will be cold. The high will be 21 degrees, but the AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures will be in the single digits Thursday afternoon.
For updates throughout the day, tune to AM 950 on your radio, tell your smart speaker "Play WWJ nine-fifty," or listen here