School Closing Outlook for Wednesday 01/28/2026
- Jacob Melton
- 4 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Day 1 School Closing Outlook Update
www.WestMichiganWeather.net/closings
Forecast Update Issued: Tuesday, January 27, 2026, 7:20 PM EST
Forecaster: Jacob Melton
Have made the decision to upgrade areas along and west of US-131 to a "Limited" risk for school closures or delays, and expand the existing Minuscule risk a bit to the east this evening.
The MiDrive map on the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) website continues to show poor travel conditions on our main roadways, especially near and west of US-131.
With temperatures dropping tonight and light snow continuing through the evening hours west of the US-131 corridor, travel conditions are unlikely to improve all that much, especially on secondary roadways, and a few more school closures or delays will likely become apparent than our original outlook thinking.
Further east, we have expanded the "Minuscule" risk zone a bit to the east to around the M-66 corridor. Snow has stopped for the most part this evening, but we cannot rule out an isolated school closure or two due to poor secondary roadway conditions, particularly in rural areas.
Day 1 School Closing Outlook
Forecast Valid: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Forecast Issued: Tuesday, January 27, 2026, 4:45 PM EST
Forecasters: Jacob Melton
Summary:
A few isolated school closures or delays will be possible on Wednesday morning across parts of West Michigan due to lingering impacts from today’s lake effect snow event.
Discussion:
Lake effect snow will continue to fall through this evening before generally beginning to taper off into the overnight hours. Additional snow accumulations through Wednesday morning will remain on the lighter side, with 1-3 inches possible near/west of US-131 and 1 inch or less possible east of there. The National Weather Service, as of this writing, is opting not to extend the Winter Weather Advisory in effect for areas along/west of US-131, which is playing a part in lower probabilities being issued with this outlook.
While winds will be gusty into early this evening, they will tend to relax as we head into the late evening and overnight hours, reducing blowing snow and wind-chill concerns. With that said, a few isolated school closures or delays cannot be entirely ruled out due to secondary road conditions, particularly in rural areas near and west of US-131. This is where we have opted to place “Minuscule” probabilities to cover this potential.
Secondary road conditions are one of the most difficult to predict in advance, which also precludes us from introducing higher probabilities at this time.
Graphical Forecast:
