FORECAST SUMMARY: Tuesday, February 18, 2025, through Friday, February 21, 2025
PM-2.5: 24-hour average Fine Particulate concentrations are expected to be a mix of mostly Good (AQI Green) to Low Moderate (AQI Yellow) for the forecast period.
FORECAST DISCUSSION
Many areas did not see the snow that was predicted for the weekend. In Lansing, we were predicted to have 9 inches and wound up with less than 2 inches. While I am sure some were disappointed at the lack of additional snow, I was not among that group.
With cloud cover dissipating under high pressure, very cold temperatures have again descended upon us with what has been called Polar Vortex v2.0. If you think January and February have been unusually cold, you are not wrong. Being the numbers geek that I am, I looked at the departure from normal, average temperatures since January 1. If the summed daily average temperature deviations were zero, then we would be exactly normal. If that summed number is negative, then we are colder than normal, and if that number is positive, then we are warmer than normal. For Grand Rapids, the summed deviations from average temperatures was -114 while Detroit was -104. So, yes, we’ve been much colder than normal.
Fortunately, this week looks to be relatively quiet. The models are not predicting any major snow events other than a small disturbance around the Wednesday night to Thursday morning time frame with less than an inch predicted. The western lake shore counties, however, will continue to see some lake effect through Thursday.
High pressure settles in for the end of the week with clearing skies and a slow rebound in temperatures. High temperatures finally getting north of the freezing mark are expected by Sunday and continuing into next week.
Air Quality should remain Good for most of the forecast period although we could see some creep into Low Moderates by the end of the week with the slowly warming temperatures.
EXTENDED FORECAST:
Air Quality is expected to be mostly Good to Low Moderate going into the weekend.