All depends on the upper wind currents. In some cases storm tracks can be altered by man-made obstacles such as large heat-generating plants, sending updrafts for miles around them.
Here in Mi. and it has been duly noted, a storm that travels west to east across the lower SE Mi. area can and will be separated or split by the many plants located along the Western shore of Lake Erie.
On my in-laws farm near that shoreline, the wife has observed this her entire childhood. She could watch the storm approaching straight shot from the west and in a heartbeat watch it split or go NE sparing them.
I've seen many blizzards blanket the communities West of Detroit, but once they get near Detroit, that snow turns to freezing rain or stright up rain due to the large auto plant that separates Detroit from the western suburbs.
In some rare cases, the dynamics of the storm allows F1 tornadoes to hit in the center of the city.
rcvmo
