COTC - 17 Mar 2026 - Weather issues
GT County Issues Life-Threatening Storm Alert; Closures Continue Tuesday
• Grand Traverse County officials warned of “life-threatening” conditions following severe overnight storms, including widespread power outages and hazardous roads
• Multiple schools, government offices, and local services across the region remained closed Tuesday as cleanup and safety assessments continue
• Emergency crews are dealing with downed trees, power lines, and blocked roads, with residents urged to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel
Source
Traverse Ticker
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Weather – Traverse City (Next 36 Hours)
Today
Cloudy with lingering snow showers and gusty winds. High near the mid 30s. Travel may remain tricky in spots.
Tonight
Partly cloudy with colder temps dropping into the low 20s. Winds gradually easing.
Tomorrow
Mix of sun and clouds. Slightly calmer, with highs in the upper 30s.
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events
• Ongoing closures and delays likely throughout the region today—check local school and municipal updates before heading out
• Consumers Energy continuing restoration efforts; some outages may last into Wednesday
Speaker 0: Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is your cup of Traverse City for Saint Patrick's Day twenty twenty six. I'm Mike. I have my coffee. I was able to shovel my way into the studio this morning.
Actually, I made it in yesterday as well, but didn't record an episode. It is what it is, but it's definitely a snowy one out there. No snow currently where I'm sitting, but we've certainly had our fill of snow. Normally, when they're hyping these big storms, you know, it's always, snowmageddon, snowmageddon. Oh my gosh.
You know, run for your lives and, nothing really happens or, you know, it's a big nothing burger. So I kind of thought that might be what was gonna go on, as I think I said on Friday. Kinda poo pooed the idea that it was gonna be bad, but, I was wrong. It's crazy, or it was crazy. My neighbor's carport collapsed.
We have a storage tent, structure in our backyard, kind of a greenhouse sort of thing, and and, the roof on that caved a little bit, although it's it's probably salvageable if, it doesn't continue to collapse. But after many, many years, I had to actually call in a plow guy to get my driveway open and, you know, because the tractor and the snow blowers just wouldn't touch it. So had a had a plow guy come in and open the driveway up, and now there's probably eight or 10 new inches of snow in there, but, that I can handle with the blower and the tractor. No big deal. Anyway, enough about me.
Let's see. Yesterday, the Grand Traverse County Sheriff For Emergency Management put out an alert. I'm sure if you're actually in the area here, you probably got that alert on your phone, maybe even a phone call. They definitely, you know, came out with this shelter in place thing. It was, in insane.
I saw it. I mean, yeah. It's it's pretty crazy. But, yeah. Anyway so, yeah, the the sheriff definitely said stay off the roads.
It's life threatening. Blah blah blah blah. I was gonna try to find where that notice was, and I was gonna read it to you. So give me just a second to do that. Yeah.
Let's see. It says Grand Traverse County, life threatening winter storm. Three feet of snow. Well, I don't know about three feet, but it might have been close in spots. But, anyway, three feet of snow and 40 mile per hour winds causing impassable roads.
Travel strongly discouraged. If stranded, responders may be delayed. Stay off the roads and shelter in place tonight. That was, issued, yesterday. I don't know.
Afternoon, evening. And, you know, probably a good idea that everybody should have stayed put. I noticed the traffic out in front of my house has been pretty light other than the occasional snowplow filling in the end of my driveway. So anyway, if you're out there moving snow today, be careful, take your time, don't overdo it. People tend to overdo things during these kind of storms and, and and the aftermath.
This will melt. At one point, I thought I saw 60 degrees in the forecast, but that has changed. So let me read that forecast. Today's snow showers likely mainly before 2PM. Patchy blowing snow up before 2PM.
Mostly cloudy with a high near 20. Northwest wind at 10 to 15 miles per hour. Chance of snow, 70%. Total daytime accumulation around an inch possible on top of what we got, plus drifting. Tonight, 30% chance of snow showers mainly after 2AM.
Mostly cloudy with low around thirteen. Southwest wind around five miles per hour becoming south after midnight. And, usually when it turns to the south or coming from the south, it's gonna be warmer air. So we'll see. Tomorrow looks like high near 35.
So, yep, it's gonna start warming up, but 40 chance of snow showers. And if I look the extended forecast, the snow doesn't stop till Thursday night. And oops. Wait a minute. Nope.
Friday morning, there looks like there's a, a bit of snow as well, but the high is gonna be 40. So, yeah, it'll melt. Like I said, I'm I'm minimally opening up the driveways just to make sure, you know, we can get out and in and all that and the walkways and whatnot, but I am not gonna do a full blown clear everything because it's all gonna melt. And I've got about a eight foot pile of snow in my front yard that's probably gonna take till June to melt, but had to call a plow guy. Catch me tomorrow.
