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ALPENA — People in Alpena who have put their snowblowers and shovels away, or taken the plows off their truck, may want to make them easily available and ready to put to use.

A quick-hitting winter storm that began early this morning is forecasted to drop up to eight inches of snow on Northeast Michigan by the time it moves off to the east later today.

The snow may not stay on the ground long, as a warming pattern is expected to take shape a few days after the storm.

According to Joe Delizio, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Gaylord, snow will begin after midnight and should increase in intensity by late morning and early afternoon. The entire storm should move out of the area by dinnertime.

He said as the storm nears, there is some uncertainty in the storm’s track, which could lead to higher amounts in some locations. Still, he said, he is confident a half foot or more of snow will be on the ground tomorrow afternoon.

“There is some uncertainty on how far north the storm track will push, but I think it is safe to say Alpena will be four to six inches,” Delizio said on Wednesday. “If the track comes further north, those amounts could climb, but right now, that’s what we’re seeing.”

Because temperatures during the storm are forecasted to remain somewhat mild, in the low 30s, Delizio said the snow will be saturated with water, heavy, and difficult to deal with.

“It isn’t going to be light and fluffy, but rather a wet and greasy snow,” he said. “It will be a much heavier snow than what we received over the last month or so.”

The accumulation from the storm will remain on the ground for at least a few days, as temperatures will struggle to reach the freezing mark.

The long-term forecast, which extends out to the end of the month, has temperatures jumping back into the lower 40s.

Delizio said the indicators point to more mild weather several weeks out, but he stressed that forecasts that extend that far out, can change dramatically.

“A lot can happen in the next two weeks, he said. “Right now we can’t bank on it, but that is what the forecast is sowing now.”

Despite the new snow, and having a well above-average snowfall in January, snowfall totals are behind the long-term average for November through January. So far this winter, Alpena is eight inches shy of the average for that time period.

Last month, Alpena received 26.4 inches of snow, with the bulk of it coming from Jan. 9 through 13 when 18.2 inches of that total accumulated. Before today, there was only a trace of snow that had fallen in Alpena this month.