The National Weather Service says southwest Michigan will be the first part of the state to be impacted Wednesday night as freezing rain falls.

A winter weather advisory is in effect from 10 p.m. Wednesday until 9 a.m. Thursday for Washtenaw, Wayne, Lenawee, Monroe, Van Buren, Kalamazoo, Calhoun and Jackson counties.

As southern Michigan prepares for an overnight ice storm, here's a look at ways you can protect yourself and family from outages, damage.

We now expect up to five-hundredths of an inch of freezing rain over almost the southern half of Lower Michigan. This is why the NWS- Grand Rapids and the NWS- Detroit added two rows of counties to the winter weather advisory.

Snow is already beginning in western Massachusetts as of 8 a.m. Thursday, and it will pick up in the eastern part of the state later this morning. The system is expected to turn into freezing rain this afternoon before tapering off in the evening hours,

An approaching system could bring up to 5 inches of snow and ice, and disrupt morning and afternoon travel before a flip to rain in some places.

A winter storm will bring snow and freezing rain to Connecticut Wednesday night into Thursday morning, the weather service said.