A weak trough of low pressure crossed the region from west to east between Monday evening, February 15th and Tuesday morning, February 16th. The trough brought generally very light snowshowers to most of southwest lower Michigan over a twenty-four hour period.
Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS GRR wrote it up.
A weak trough of low pressure crossed the region from west to east between Monday evening, February 15th and Tuesday morning, February 16th. The trough brought generally very light snowshowers to most of southwest lower Michigan over a twenty-four hour period.
However, a more intense north-south oriented lake effect band of snowshowers produced local snow accumulations of 9 inches in western Oceana county from Monday evening into midday Tuesday. Elsewhere, lake-effect snowshowers resulted in local snow amounts of 3 to 6 inches along and west of U.S. Route 31 north of Holland and Interstates 196 and 94 to the south of Holland.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Grand Rapids, MI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 15, 6:42 PM EST, 18 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND RAPIDS MI 642 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010 LATEST UPDATE...AVIATION... .SYNOPSIS...(345 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010) A SERIES OF UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCES DROPPING DOWN FROM THE NORTH COMBINED WITH COLD NORTHWEST WINDS OFF LAKE MICHIGAN WILL RESULT IN OCCASIONAL SNOW SHOWERS WITH SOME LIGHT ACCUMULATIONS THROUGH MID WEEK. && .SHORT TERM...(345 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010) (TONIGHT THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT) ARRIVAL OF DEEPER MOISTURE AND A LOBE OF VORTICITY FROM THE NORTH HAS CAUSED AN INCREASE IN SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY THIS AFTERNOON... PARTICULARLY WEST OF HIGHWAY 131. ALTHOUGH THE INVERSION HEIGHTS ARE RELATIVELY LOW AT AROUND 850 MB... THE LOW LEVEL LAPSE RATES BELOW THAT ARE RATHER STEEP. THIS HAS ALLOWED SOME BRIEFLY HEAVIER SNOW SHOWERS REDUCING VISIBILITIES TO AS LOW AS ONE HALF MILE (MKG). THE VORT LOBE PASSES SOUTH OF THE CWFA BY MIDNIGHT AND MAY YIELD A LULL IN SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY UNTIL THE NEXT LOBE APPROACHES EARLY TUE MORNING. WILL CARRY CATEGORICAL POPS OVER THE BULK OF THE CWFA TONIGHT WITH 1.0 TO 1.5 INCHES OF ACCUMULATION NORTH AND WEST. WILL GO AN INCH OR LESS IN THE SE PORTION OF CWFA. MOISTURE DEPTH REMAINS DEEP (10K FEET OR MORE) THROUGH WEDNESDAY NIGHT WHICH WILL RESULT IN A CONTINUATION OF SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY. A RATHER INTENSE H5 VORTICITY MAX/PV ANOMALY IS PROGGED TO PASS SOUTH THROUGH THE CWFA DURING THE AFTERNOON HOURS ON TUESDAY AND MAY LEAD TO SOME LOCALLY INTENSE SNOW SHOWERS. AGAIN WILL CARRY CATEGORICAL POPS OVER THE CWFA WITH AROUND AN INCH OF ACCUMULATION. HIGH TEMPS NEAR 32-33F AND ANY BRIEF BREAKS IN THE CLOUDS MAY CONTRIBUTE TO SOME MELTING OF THE FALLING SNOW. WILL HAVE POPS FALLING BACK INTO THE CHANCE CATEGORY ON TUESDAY NIGHT BEHIND THE STRONG VORT MAX ALTHOUGH WILL KEEP LIKELY POPS GOING IN FAVORED NW FLOW LOCALES SOUTH OF MKG. PERHAPS ANOTHER INCH OF ACCUMULATION WILL OCCUR THERE. H8 TEMPS ARE ACTUALLY PROGGED TO WARM WEDNESDAY AND WEDNESDAY NIGHT WHICH SHOULD LIMIT COVERAGE AND INTENSITY OF ANY SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY. && .LONG TERM...(345 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010) (THURSDAY THROUGH MONDAY) A FAIRLY BENIGN WEATHER PATTERN IS EXPECTED TO BE IN PLACE THROUGH THE LONG TERM...WITH NEAR NORMAL TEMPERATURES AND LITTLE IN THE WAY OF PRECIPITATION. THURSDAY INTO SATURDAY...THE UPPER PATTERN FEATURES A POLAR LOW OVER THE CANADIAN MARITIMES WITH A GENERAL NORTHWEST FLOW OVER THE GREAT LAKES. THE FIM AND EUROPEAN MODELS BRING A SHORTWAVE THROUGH THE AREA FRIDAY...ALTHOUGH NEITHER GENERATE MUCH IN THE WAY OF PRECIPITATION. WILL BE KEEPING THINGS DRY FOR FRIDAY FOR NOW. THE FLOW BECOMES A BIT MORE ZONAL OVER THE WEEKEND WITH NO MAJOR DISTURBANCES TO KEY ON. SOME WEAK SHORTWAVE ACTIVITY IS SEEN MOVING THROUGH THE REGION LATE IN THE WEEKEND...BUT NOT ENOUGH OF A SIGNATURE TO KEY ON TO ADD POPS TO THE FORECAST AT THIS POINT. THEREFORE...HAVE A DRY LONG TERM PERIOD. && .AVIATION...(642 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010) SURFACE OBSERVATIONS...RADAR TRENDS AND IR SATELLITE LOOPS ALL SHOW A GENERAL INCREASE IN SNOW SHOWER ACTIVITY THIS EVENING. ONE BAND OF SNOW SHOWERS IS JUST APPROACHING AZO AND BTL (SHOULD BE THERE BY 730 PM) WITH OCCASIONAL IFR VIS/CIGS THAT SHOULD LAST 2 TO 3 HOURS. THIS BAND IS JUST MOVING OUT OF THE GRR AND MKG AREA. ANOTHER AREA JUST NORTH OF MBL SHOULD REACH I-96 TAF SITES AROUND MIDNIGHT. THAT AREA SHOULD BE MORE PERSISTENT. OVERALL MVFR CIGS/VSBY SHOULD PREVAIL EVEN WITH THE SNOW FOR THE MOST PART. CURIOUSLY THE 18Z NAM12 SHOWS A LAKE ENHANCED SNOW BAND WOULD REACH THE JXN AREA BY 4 AM WILL EXTEND FROM LAKE SUPERIOR ACROSS TVC TO JXN THROUGH MOST OF THE DAY TUESDAY. DUE TO THE NORTH NORTHWEST WINDS IN THE BOUNDARY LAYER I HAVE THE LOWEST VSBY /CIGS AT MKG. EVEN THERE THROUGH I DO NOT EXPECT SOLID IFR TUESDAY. && .MARINE...(345 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010) NORTHWEST WINDS WILL INCREASE TONIGHT AS THE UPPER WAVE MOVES THROUGH. WIND GUSTS TO 30KTS POSSIBLE. SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY FOR TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT REMAINS IN EFFECT. && .HYDROLOGY...(345 PM EST MON FEB 15 2010) NO KNOWN ICE JAM ISSUES ATTM. && .GRR WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES... MI...NONE. LM...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY TONIGHT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT FROM ST JOE TO MANISTEE. && SYNOPSIS: MEADE SHORT TERM: MEADE LONG TERM: DUKE AVIATION: WDM MARINE: MEADE HYDROLOGY: MEADE
HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE GRAND RAPIDS MI 553 AM EST MON FEB 15 2010 MIZ037>040-043>046-050>052-056>059-064>067-071>074-161100- MASON-LAKE-OSCEOLA-CLARE-OCEANA-NEWAYGO-MECOSTA-ISABELLA-MUSKEGON- MONTCALM-GRATIOT-OTTAWA-KENT-IONIA-CLINTON-ALLEGAN-BARRY-EATON- INGHAM-VAN BUREN-KALAMAZOO-CALHOUN-JACKSON- 553 AM EST MON FEB 15 2010 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST LOWER MICHIGAN. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT LIGHT SNOW COULD LEAD TO SOME SLICK DRIVING CONDITIONS MAINLY ALONG AND NORTH OF INTERSTATE 96 TONIGHT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 1 TO 3 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE BEFORE THE SNOW TAPERS OFF TUESDAY. THIS COULD RESULT IN SLIPPERY TRAVEL CONDITIONS. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED. LMZ844>849-161100- ST JOSEPH TO SOUTH HAVEN MI-SOUTH HAVEN TO HOLLAND MI- HOLLAND TO GRAND HAVEN MI-GRAND HAVEN TO WHITEHALL MI- WHITEHALL TO PENTWATER MI-PENTWATER TO MANISTEE MI- 553 AM EST MON FEB 15 2010 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHWEST LOWER MICHIGAN. .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT WINDS AND WAVES WILL BECOME HAZARDOUS TO SMALL CRAFT TONIGHT. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...TUESDAY THROUGH SUNDAY WINDS AND WAVES WILL REMAIN HAZARDOUS TO SMALL CRAFT THROUGH TUESDAY NIGHT. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION WILL NOT BE NEEDED. MJS
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
1 lake-effect snow. Local standard time, as filed.
A co-op observer in Hart reported 8.6 inches of snowfall, and there were also a couple of reports of 7 to 8 inches of snow in and near the Stony Lake area.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Michigan in 2010Every state in 2010This day in weather historyWarnings in Michigan, February 2010
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 217696.