The Sault regions will end up with 2-5cm of snow by the time it ends late Thursday morning. More snow has fallen well to the east. With the synoptic scale snow now ending we now turn our attention to meso-scale events, ie snow squalls.
With temperatures aloft dropping to below -10C we will see the genesis of snow squalls later this evening. It appears that squalls will stay over the upper peninsula. of Michigan, until after midnight. Winds will then turn squalls towards the Sault and we could see several hours of moderate squalls on Friday morning. Squalls will then move north of the city by noon tomorrow and impact the Eastern Superior. The heaviest squalls will hit near Batchawana Bay and Montreal River.
By late Friday night the winds will begin to turn to the southwest. You will then see squalls move into the Wawa region and also the regions south of Laird Hill and east of Desbarats. These locations could see some intense squalls with snowfall rates of 3-5cm per hour. It wouldn’t be out of the question for these regions(Wawa and St. Joseph Island region) to see near 20cm by late Saturday.
Remember squall activity can be very isolated with intense amounts of snow in some locations while nearby locations get very little. Squall activity should come to an end by Saturday morning.
Below is a map showing squall development across the Great Lakes on Saturday morning. The green tinges near Wawa, Mackinac straits and Lake Erie show snow squall rates of 5cm per hour.
