Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

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December 30, 2008

After brief respite, more snow expected

By LINDSAY VanHULLE

TRAVERSE CITY -- It took Becky Ross nine hours to drive from her southern Michigan home of Marshall to visit family in Leland. The trip usually takes four hours.

Her husband, Bill, left a day later, driving through road conditions he said were among the worst he had ever traveled.

They plan to leave for home today, as fresh snow -- after days of cloudy, but dry skies -- moves into the area. Does it make them nervous?

"Of course, sure, but that's the situation," Bill Ross said. "I'll take a look at the weather."

Residents already buried beneath above-average snowfall were expected to find as much as 4 to 6 inches of fresh powder out their windows today, after an anticipated weather system arrived Tuesday evening mostly in communities west of U.S. 131, said Scott Rozanski, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord.

Another 2 to 3 inches is expected today, Rozanski said, and light snow is expected into New Year's Day.

The average snowfall by this time of the season in the Grand Traverse area is about 30 to 35 inches, he said. Already, Traverse City's Munson Medical Center has recorded 53 inches, Beulah 65, Fife Lake 93 and Kingsley 96.8. And it's not even January.

"I can't think of one place that isn't above normal," Rozanski said. "A lot of this is due to enhancements off the lake."

The accumulating snow has been great for area children, who are out of school until after the new year.

Rebecca Hubbard said the plentiful hills near her Frankfort home have given her children a chance to try out a new toy.

"They got a new sled for Christmas," she said. "It's been nice over break for the kids to play."

Temperatures should hover in the mid-20s through the weekend, with today being the coldest day, he said. Expect highs in the teens and winds about 10 or 15 mph that could make it feel even colder.

High winds led to hundreds of thousands of power outages across Michigan last weekend. Thousands of homes remained without electricity statewide as of Tuesday.

As of 11 a.m. Sunday, 1,370 homes in Antrim County, 1,750 in Benzie County and 600 in Grand Traverse County were without power, according to Consumers Energy news updates. All had been restored by 4 p.m. Monday.

Traverse City Light & Power had four separate outages Sunday, sending about 55 customers into darkness, operations manager Mark Rollenhagen said. All were back on within a few hours.

And more than 2,000 Cherryland Electric customers lost power from Manistee to Northport Sunday, but all were restored before midnight, operations manager Jim Carpenter said.

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