Good Friday, folks. We have a serious surge of ugly weather dropping into the region today and this will take us into Saturday. Believe it or not, some slushy snow may cover the ground in parts of the state early Saturday. From there, there’s little change to the overall wild look to the pattern for the rest of the month. Ugh.

This ugly weather comes from a true wintertime setup as a major upper level low drops into the region from the northwest…

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Rain and a few snow showers develop today and there’s enough instability for some thunder and lightning during the afternoon and early evening. That’s when the action really kicks into high gear.

A strong northwest flow kicks in tonight and Saturday with snow showers becoming more widespread. As a matter of fact, there’s likely to be a connection from Lake Michigan all the way into our region. This is when light accumulations show up on grassy and elevated surfaces.

The models continue to show the chance for some slush…

GFS

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EURO

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This mess moves away for Sunday as we start things out with clear skies and a hard freeze in the 20s. The afternoon looks good with temps reaching the upper 50s to middle 60s for many.

Temps surge through the first half of the new week with some thunderstorms possible Monday and Tuesday. Temps surge ahead of a very potent storm system that cranks in the plains and slowly heads toward the Great Lakes. That may bring a big outbreak of severe weather with it, especially to our west. The chance for severe storms to get in here will be noted Wednesday and early Thursday…

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The pattern turns much colder again after this and the Ensembles are growing even colder looking. Take a look at the 7 day temp departures from April 15 through April 22…

EURO ENSEMBLES

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GFS ENSEMBLES

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This pattern does have another chance for late April flakes, very similar to what happened last year. NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I leave you with your rain and snow shower trackers for the day…

Have a happy Friday and take care.