School Closing Outlook for Wednesday 03/11/2026

Day 1 School Closing Outlook

www.WestMichiganWeather.net/closings

Forecast Valid: Wednesday, March 11, 2026

Forecast Issued: Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 4:15 PM

Forecasters: Jacob Melton

Summary:

School closures or delays are possible on Wednesday morning in portions of West Michigan due to both winter and severe weather potential.

Discussion:

As mentioned above, we do have the chance of school closures or delays across portions of West Michigan on Wednesday morning. For our northern areas, it is due to Winter Weather in the form of freezing rain potential, while for our southern areas, it is due to potential impacts from severe weather.

Starting with our northern areas, this is definitely the area that is more likely to wind up seeing some school closures or delays on Wednesday morning. As shower and thunderstorm activity lifts into the region this evening and into tonight, it will run into colder temperatures around or above freezing as you get closer to and north of the US-10 corridor. The environment in this area is conducive to freezing rain and will continue into Wednesday morning, causing potential travel impacts for the morning school commute.

A Winter Weather Advisory is in effect for Lake, Osceola, and Clare counties starting at 10 PM this evening until 2 PM on Wednesday. Up to two-tenths of an inch of ice accumulation will be possible near and north of US-10, particularly on elevated surfaces such as bridges, trees, and powerlines. East winds 10-20 mph gusting to around 30 mph may cause some localized power outages in this area when combined with the ice on trees and powerlines. While marginal temperatures around freezing may limit road and travel impacts to some extent, slick conditions remain likely, especially on elevated road surfaces such as bridges.

We have gone with “Medium” closing probabilities for areas along and north of a Baldwin to Clare line, which lines up with where the most freezing rain is expected to fall. Probabilities taper off with southward extent, and we don’t expect freezing rain to be an issue tonight south of a line from Newaygo to Alma.

As for our secondary area in Southwest Lower Michigan, this is due to the potential of impacts from severe weather tonight across this area. The Storm Prediction Center has a Level 3/5 Enhanced risk of severe weather in place from areas along and south of a roughly St. Joseph to Coldwater line in Southwest Michigan.

This is an all-hazards severe weather threat with potential for tornadoes (some possibly significant), large hail (very large hail also a possibility), and damaging winds. While we don’t generally think this will result in school closures on Wednesday morning, we cannot fully rule out a couple of isolated closures in this area due to power outages from damage to trees or power lines. Thus, we have included a “Minuscule” risk zone to cover this potential.

Graphical Forecast: