The graphic below is the GFS model from Friday through Tuesday early morning. We start out fairly warm with temperatures in the low 50s (yellow in the graphic) with rain on Saturday. The winds will pickup out of the northwest changing the rain into snow then lake enhanced snow and lake effect starting late Saturday/early Sunday as our temperatures drop into the 30s.
This will probably be our strongest storm thus far this fall, mostly a rain and wind event. At this point we could see an inch of rain from this system and maybe and inch of snow.
Thanksgiving may see a couple inches of snow with another system coming through in that time frame with cooler air and perhaps another shot or two for light snow the last week of this month. I don’t think the snow will stay on the ground for long with temperatures swinging back and forth from above to below freezing.
This graphic shows the wind speed at 850mb (5000 feet) for this weekends storm. The darker shades of red denote winds around 30 to 45mph so we will definitely see some strong winds with this system.
Today and Thursday will probably be our best days this week with some sun, so enjoy it will its lasts.

Yesterday Mookie made this statement
“Very surprised at the lack of snowfall so far. GRR is up to only 0.2″ for the month. I would’ve definitely expected some lake effect by now with the warm water and cold air.”
Well in looking up past November’s that have been as cold as this one that is a correct statement here are some recent past November’s with similar temperatures and that Novembers snow fall.
2014 31.0”
2002 7.6”
2000 23.0”
1996 5.6”
1991 25.3”
1986 5.3”
2017 so far 0.2” so compared to past cold November’s this year has not had much snow as of yet.
Slim
Well we are almost half way thru November 2017 and at this time the mean temperature at Grand Rapids is 37.9° (-5.6°) at this time it looks like November will be the first below average month since August and has a good chance of being the coldest compared to average this year and is in the running for the coldest compared to average since February 2015.
Slim