Whether this is good news or bad depends on your perspective.

Snowfall for Detroit this month has been especially light, about a tenth of an inch, weather watchers say.

That ties with 2014 for the December with the second least amount of snow.

But, don't rejoice — or despair — just yet.

"We did have a bit of a mild stretch here," National Weather Service meteorologist Sara Pampreen said Thursday. "But we will go back down into the normal cold going into the New Year."

Friday's highs are expected in the low 50s with about a half-inch of rain. Saturday, however, it will cool off with highs in the low 30s. Sunday will be in the mid-30s.

Normally, Pampreen said, the total December snowfall in Detroit is about 7.7 inches. The record for least snow was set in 1889, which was completely snowless, according to weather service records.

Meteorologists began tracking snowfall in 1880.

Michigan weather can be challenging to predict.

Northwesterly winds in November arrived about a month earlier than normal leading to a cold spell and a lot more early snow, meteorologists said.

In 2013, a snowstorm from Dec. 31 to Jan. 2, dropped 11 inches. The heaviest snowstorm in Detroit, according to the weather service, was in the spring, April 6, 1886. In a single day, nearly 25 inches of snow fell.

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Most likely, Pampreeen said, winter will be back.

"But," she added, "people are going to want to enjoy tomorrow's warm temperatures."

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

Decembers with most and least snow

Least snowfall

1889: none

2014: 0.1 inches

1894: 0.4 inches

1943: 0.9 inches

1998: 1.2 inches

Most snowfall

1974: 34.9 inches

1929: 27.4 inches

2000: 25.1 inches

1951: 24 inches

2017: 22.5 inches