If you normally use street parking for your vehicle, you may be asked or instructed to move it on Thursday. 

The reason is that several Metro Detroit communities have invoked snow emergency rules in response to the wintry mix of weather that started Wednesday afternoon and continued into Thursday morning. Some areas are reporting several inches of snow. 

A snow emergency in Michigan’s cities and villages is a local rule invoking street parking restrictions on designated roads and at designated times so that snowplows can clear the area. In some communities, tickets and fines are issued for violations. 

The following communities are among those that have issued snow emergency notices: 

Belleville

The City of Belleville has declared a snow emergency until Saturday.

“All vehicles should be removed from City streets so that snow plows can clear the snow,” city officials said.

Dearborn

The City of Dearborn declared a snow emergency at 7 p.m. Wednesday. All vehicles are ordered off the city streets so that snowplows can work. Any vehicles that remained on the streets after 4 a.m. Thursday could face a ticket or be towed.

Additional details are on the city’s website.

Dearborn Heights 

Dearborn Heights Mayor Mo Baydoun issued a snow emergency effective 7:30 p.m. Wednesday until 5 p.m. Thursday. All vehicles are asked to be move from the streets, as street parking is prohibited during this time.  

“Cars left on the street will be ticketed,” the mayor said. 

Flat Rock

The City of Flat Rock has declared a snow emergency, to remain in effect until 12 a.m. Friday.

“Please remove all vehicles from the street so that our Public Service crews can effectively plow and salt our streets,” the police department said.  

Novi 

The City of Novi asked residents Wednesday night to move any vehicles that are parked on the streets “so crews can plow curb to curb.” 

Pontiac 

Pontiac Mayor Mike McGuinness declared a snow emergency starting 8 p.m. Wednesday through 8 a.m. Sunday. Public work crews have been making the rounds to clear the streets. 

A snow emergency in Pontiac includes no parking on downtown streets between 3 and 6 a.m. There also is no parking on any streets marked “snow emergency route,” and no parking on designated sides of streets on designated days. Updates are posted on the city’s website. 

Taylor

The city of Taylor invoked snow emergency procedures effective 8 a.m. Thursday.

An emergency alert sent by the city Wednesday night appears to have been broadcast throughout Wayne County, which means residents of other communities may have received it on their cell phones.

The above video originally aired Jan. 14.

LANSING, Mich. – Michigan’s coyotes are back to year-round pressure from hunters and trappers after a major policy reversal by state game regulators.

The state Natural Resources Commission voted unanimously on Wednesday on a controversial measure to allow coyotes to be killed all year long, backtracking on a position the state had successfully defended in court. Hunting groups immediately praised the change.

“It empowers landowners, safeguards the wildlife, protects our agricultural community and upholds Michigan’s conservation legacy,” said Merle Jones of the Michigan Trappers and Predator Callers Association.

Previously, Michigan game regulators had established a “quiet period” when coyotes could not be killed from mid-April to mid-July. That’s when coyote pups are vulnerable and not yet weaned from their mother’s milk.

State officials had been motivated by concern that hunters would leave young coyotes orphaned, turning public perception against hunting more broadly. Hunting groups balked at that notion and sued the state to overturn the policy.

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Last June, an Ingham County judge ruled against the hunting groups; an appeal of the decision remains pending.

Since then, the NRC has faced months of calls from hunters to restore coyote hunting opportunities. That’s while animal rights activists urged commissioners to stay the course.

This week the commissioners responded to the pressure from hunters.

Regulators didn’t fully restore year-round hunting and trapping of coyotes, though.

Instead, the NRC expanded “out-of-season” killing of overabundant coyotes or those causing interspecies conflicts on public and private lands, according to the approved state wildlife order.

A coyote hunting and trapping season will run from Oct. 15 through March 1. Then what regulators call a “management season” will cover the remainder of the year, when coyotes could only be killed on private property.

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The new rules will take effect March 1 this year.

The coyote regulation changes also drew opponents to this week’s meeting in Lansing.

Mitchell Nelson of Humane World for Animals nonprofit criticized the language of the wildlife order. He specifically complained that interspecies conflict isn’t defined, nor is a standard for what qualifies as an overabundance of coyotes.

“We don’t even have a current population count of coyotes, so with no accurate additional count of coyotes, no metrics for determining relative coyote abundance and distribution in an area, and no reporting requirement for the killing of coyotes, the concept of addressing overabundance is rendered completely meaningless,” Nelson told the commissioners during public comments.

“The bottom line is that increasing the random and indiscriminate killing of coyotes will not achieve any management objective,” Nelson said.

Game regulators also heard from a state scientist during their meeting.

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Commissioner John Walters asked the furbearer specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources whether it’s believed the change to coyote regulations would have any negative effect on the species population.

“We do not expect this proposed change to have a population level impact on coyotes,” said Cody Norton, DNR wildlife biologist.

Research has shown that more than 70% of coyotes in an area must be killed to reduce the population. As prolific breeders, the animals can recover their population within a year if only 60% are removed.

Rebecca Humphries, NRC chairperson, said the change is meant to address nuisance animals without altering the regular hunting and trapping season.

“The whole concept is to try and keep the integrity of the hunting and trapping season when they’re used as a furbearer species for pelts, and then outside that give people essentially the ability to take the species whenever it’s causing problems for them,” Humphries told MLive.

DETROIT – Rain in Southeast Michigan is expected to quickly transition to snow early Wednesday. These light snow showers are forecast to linger into the afternoon.

This could mean snow accumulations of just a dusting in some areas to a half inch in other locations. Some localized amounts could reach one inch of snow.

Farther north, a Winter Storm Watch remains in effect for eastern Huron and northeastern Sanilac counties through Thursday morning. In this area, heavy lakeshore snow bands could lead to 5 to 7 inches of snow.

Much colder air is moving into the region late this week and into next weekend. Thursday morning’s wind chills could drop to negative single digits for most areas.

Here are the forecast highlights for the Detroit area from the National Weather Service:

Light snow showers are expected across Southeast Michigan Wednesday morning before an Arctic airmass pushes lake moisture further south. Most areas will see minimal additional snowfall, with accumulations of just a dusting.

The eastern Thumb region is the exception. A winter storm watch has been issued for eastern Huron and northeastern Sanilac counties, where snowfall totals could reach 5 to 7 inches by Thursday morning. North-northwest winds are expected to draw Lake Huron banding over areas along and east of a Port Austin-Port Sanilac line from late Wednesday afternoon through early Thursday morning.

The core of the Arctic airmass will settle over the central Great Lakes Wednesday through Thursday. Thursday morning lows are forecast to fall into the single digits, with wind chills ranging from zero to 10 below zero. Thursday afternoon highs will struggle to reach the low 20s, with some areas in the Thumb expected to top out only in the teens.

Temperatures will moderate slightly Friday ahead of another weather system dropping out of northern Canada. This Clipper system is expected to bring widespread accumulating snowfall of 1 to 2 inches on Friday, followed by scattered lake effect snow showers and flurries. Arctic air will return for the weekend.