This picture is from Greenvile Jan 12, 1918
This one is from Grand Haven on the same day.
One hundred years ago Grand Rapids had its coldest year in recorded weather history. The mean temperature for the year was 44.6° The average mean is 49.4° the next coldest year was 45.2° in 1904 and in 3rd place is 1978 with 45.6°
The year 1917 started off with January 1917 being just a little below average with a mean temperature of 22.7° (-1.7) and there was 16.2” of snow. February came in at 17..3° (-9.5°) and 8.4” of snow. March was 35.1° (-0.5°) and 3.4” April was 43.1° (-4.9°) with 0.1” of snow. May 51.7° (-7.0°) and a trace of snow. As for the summer June was 62.6° (-5.8°) July 71.6° (-0.9°). July came in with that below average mean even with 6 days in the 90’s including 3 days in a row with highs/lows of 95/77, 94/79 and 98/78. August mean was 68.6° (-2.2) September 60.3° (-2.5°) October 42.9° (-8.1°) and there was 3” of snow. November 38.2° (-1.9°) and 3.6” of snow. December 21.1° (-8.1°) and 9.7” of snow. The cold continued in January 1918 with a mean of 12.5° (-11.9°) and 45” of snow. February came in at 22.4° (-4.4°) with 5.6”. Finally in March Grand Rapids had it first warmer then average month with a mean of 38.4° (+2.8°) that March was the first month above average at Grand Rapids since October 1916. During January of 1918 much of the Great Lakes area had deep snow cover due to 2 or more storms that hit the area with snow and high winds.
The snows in early mid-January 1918 came in two storms one on January 6th and 7th and then the second one on January 11th and 12th Here are some totals from the two storms Grand Rapids Jan 6th 11” Jan 7th 2” Jan 12th 10” Jan 13th 2” total on the ground 22” Lansing Jan 6th 5” Jan 7th 1.5” Jan 11th 2” Jan 12th 4.8” total on the ground 15” Detroit Jan 6th 2” Jan 11th 1.3” Jan 12th 3.7” no report of total on the ground. Saginaw Jan 6th 5.8” Jan 11th 6.8” Jan 12 1.2” total on the ground 16” All Michigan locations reported lows on the 12th of -14° or -15° Fort Wane Jan 1st (yes the 1st) 5.7” Jan 7th 4.0” Jan 11th 4.2” total on the ground 19” coldest low on the 12th -24° Chicago Jan 6th 14.4” Jan 7th 0.5” Jan 11th 5.9” Jan 12th 4.0” total on the ground 25” coldest low -14° January 1918 was a cold and snowy month in the great lakes area. At Grand Rapids the mean for the month was 18.4° (-11.9°) and 45” of snow was reported. I do NOT expect to see a repeat of the winter of 1917/18 this year. In fact in looking at long range guesses the more I believe “long range guesses” are a “guess” while one could justify the “guess” by putting educated in front of it and call it an “educated guess” it none the less just a guess. Now while I do not believe this winter will not be like the winter of 100 years ago the CPC is (IMO) sticking its neck out and calling for a wetter and colder than average winter. My starting idea is for a near average winter, But as always time will tell.
Slim
Great post Slim! I like those photos too. Only time will tell what winter will be like this year.
the coldest it has gotten so far this fall season at GRR is 40° this is the latest in the fall without getting into the 30’s at Grand Rapids since 1914 when it happened on October 25th The average first 39° or colder low is on September 23rd with a range of August 30th (1976) to October 25th (1914)
Slim
Excellent write up again! It is incredible we have not had a frost yet being late October, but even more impressive that we haven’t even been below 40 degrees yet. Some long standing warm records that were seemingly un-attainable have been falling this year. One has to wonder what records might be broken in the coming months.
Having some issues with some scripts on the forecast page this morning – please stand by.
The issue is with Unisys maps trying to download – will try to update the forecast later when they get their problems worked out
Issues fixed – 🙂