Published: January 05, 2008 09:54 am      

Snow may be puddles as warm spell nears

GAYLORD -- Warm temperatures and rainfall will soon spoil the snow in northern Michigan.

"We're going to get a gradual warm-up through the weekend, with a more substantial warm-up on Monday and Tuesday," said Kevin Sullivan, meteorologist at the National Weather Service station in Gaylord. "And we have the potential for heavy rainfall on Tuesday, up to an inch in some areas."

Today will see a high temperature of around 37 degrees across the region, with Sunday in the low-40s followed by an expected high of 48 degrees on both Monday and Tuesday. Fog and rain will dominate during those days, Sullivan said.

"I really expect most areas, especially near the lake shore, to lose snow down to maybe a trace or up to an inch," he said.

More elevated areas, such as Kalkaska and Gaylord, will keep a couple of inches of the white stuff until temperatures drop back into the mid-30s by Wednesday.

"It looks like we'll settle back into a more active and cooler weather pattern into late next week and get some accumulating snows. And a colder pattern is expected by the end of January, into February," Sullivan said. "We will gradually build our snow pack back up by the end of the month, but we are going to lose what we've got."