Most of our area (Allegan County) has had power restored but Charter Spectrum was still working on cable repairs yesterday. Our cable supplies our internet, phone, and TV which we were without most of yesterday. Good thing we still had cell service though I hate typing on my cell, my thumbs are too big.
It will be warm and humid today with highs in the mid to upper 80s away from the Lake Michigan Beaches. Expect scattered showers and a few thunderstorms. Locally heavy rainfall is possible from some of the thunderstorms. We expect the heat to continue through the weekend with temperatures near 90°.
Weather History for SW Michigan
July 31
1883: Very heavy rains during June and July cause the Grand River to rise to unusually high summer levels. Lumber companies use the high water to float logs to a log boom upstream of Grand Rapids. The logs broke loose and crashed into the Detroit, Grand Haven & Milwaukee Railroad bridge creating a jam estimated at thirty-feet deep and seven-miles long. Sections of Grand Rapids were flooded by backwater. Eventually the bridge gave way and several bridges downstream were damaged by the cascading logs.
1917: A heat wave produced record highs in the upper 90s as July ended, with Grand Rapids hitting 98 degrees and Lansing 96 degrees. There were also record high minimum temperatures of 79 degrees at Grand Rapids and 74 at Lansing.
2005: Hot and dry weather during the month leads to drought conditions along the Lake Michigan coast. Agricultural production was hampered as the dry conditions continue into August.
August 1
1886: A tornado moves from northern Kalamazoo County into Barry County, damaging several farms in and near Hickory Corners.
1947: What turns out to be the hottest August on record starts off on a decidedly cool note with record lows of 48 degrees at Grand Rapids and 43 degrees at Muskegon.
1993: A severe storm in Kent County produced grapefruit-sized hail in Cannon Township, northeast of Grand Rapids.
2002: A tornado struck north of Tustin in Osceola County. The tornado left a damage path six miles long, with dozens of large trees down and some roof damage to homes. One house had its attached garage destroyed. A weaker tornado also hit near Grant in Newaygo County, toppling a tree.
August 2
1927: Morning low temperatures fall into the lower to mid-40s during one of the coolest Augusts on record. Daily record lows are set at Lansing with 40 degrees, Muskegon with 42 and Grand Rapids at 46.
1964: Lansing hits 100 degrees and Grand Rapids 98 as a brutal four-day heat wave continues.
August 3
1894: After two record heat waves in July, record cool weather arrives. Lansing falls to 32 degrees for a rare summer freezing temperature.
1964: Muskegon sets an August record and ties their all-time record high temperature at 99 degrees. The temperature hits 100 degrees at Grand Rapids, a record for the date.
August 4
1894: The second record cool morning in a row at Lansing with 37 degrees. Grand Rapids also sets a record low for the date of 42 degrees.
1988: A hot and dry summer continues with record highs of 96 degrees at Lansing and Grand Rapids and 92 degrees at Muskegon.
August 5
1947: The temperature hits 93 at Muskegon and 100 degrees at Grand Rapids, where it will reach the century mark again the next day. A total of 17 days during the month had high temperatures of 90 or above at Grand Rapids. This is the hottest August on record for Lansing, Grand Rapids and Muskegon.
1968: Tornadoes caused scattered damage across Lower Michigan. One tornado hit southeast of Grand Rapids, damaging several farms from Kentwood and into Ionia County. Another tornado damaged two houses southwest of Lansing. A third tornado damaged a boat and dock near Houghton Lake in Roscommon County.
August 6
1918: Southwest Lower Michigan was in the grip of an extreme heat wave. Both Grand Rapids and Lansing set their highest temperature on record for the month of August at 102 degrees. At Lansing, it also ties the record for their all-time highest temperature.
1955: A tornado injured one person in Hastings and another tornado caused minor damage near Norvell in Jackson County.
1998: A small tornado downed trees and did minor damage to an outbuilding at Hamilton in Allegan County.
Weather History for SE Michigan
July 31
On July 31, 1925, greatest rainfall for a calendar date in Detroit occurred on this date when 4.74″ fell. Also, back in 1891 this date marked the end of the coldest July ever recorded in Detroit, with a mean temperature of only 67.2 degrees, well over six degrees below the current norm!
August 1
On August 1, 2018, a low-pressure system brought heavy rain to the region which provided relief after an abnormally dry July. 1 to 3 inches of rain fell with some localized areas seeing 4 inches – most of it during a 3-hour period or less during the overnight period. This led to areas of flooding, specifically over Dearborn Heights and Taylor where several feet of water was reported over roadways the following morning. Additionally, a weak EF0 tornado was reported in Taylor shortly after midnight and resulted in minor damage near the Southland Center.
On August 1, 1925, the record for the greatest rainfall in Detroit for a 24-hour period was set with 4.75 inches of precipitation from July 31st-August 1st (an additional .01″ fell early on Aug 1st).
August 2
On August 2, 2006, severe thunderstorms repeatedly moved along the Interstate 69 corridor during the evening hours. The storms produced severe winds that downed many trees. The training nature of the storms produced up to 10 inches of rainfall in northeast Lapeer and southwest Sanilac Counties. The town of Brown City was especially hard hit by flooding. The flood resulted in about 2.5 million dollars in damages.
Also on August 2, 1986, an F1 tornado hit Macomb county and on this date in 1972, an F3 tornado hit Oakland county at 4:23 pm.
August 3
On August 3, 1944, record high temperatures of 98 degrees on the 3rd and 97 degrees on the 4th were reached in Saginaw. Also on this date, the record for the lowest sea-level pressure for August in Detroit occurred: 29.14″!
August 4
On August 4, 1988, an F1 tornado hit Washtenaw county at 3:40 pm.
August 5
On August 5, 1931, the mercury rose to a record 102 degrees in Saginaw.
August 6
On August 6, 1918, the temperature soared to 104 degrees in Detroit while Saginaw recorded 103. Both are the record maximum temperatures for the month of August.
Forecast Discussion
-- Today -- Patchy dense fog and areas of low stratus in the zone of greater low-level moisture south of Muskegon-Alma will gradually lift through the morning after daybreak. At the surface, a diffuse boundary (originally arrived as a cold front, now stalled and quasi-stationary) will be draped across the southern third of the lower peninsula. Similar to Thursday, it will have more of a theta-e (moisture) gradient than a temperature gradient. Zones of weak convergent surface flow over inland portions of southern Michigan are expected during diurnal max heating, aided by further by lake breeze circulations and the potential for scattered deeper convective updrafts and resulting outflow from showers or isolated thunderstorms. A similar thermodynamic profile as yesterday is expected, with adequate LFC-to-3km CAPE (potentially around 100 J/kg) to support strong low-level updrafts beneath a warm/dry inhibiting layer around 3 km, then sizable CAPE available above 4 km to the upper troposphere if updrafts can survive the inhibition from both the warm layer and dry air entrainment. Weak wind speeds and vertical wind shear through the low-mid troposphere will be present. It`s conceivable that similar to yesterday, zones of weak horizontal wind shear or horizontal vorticity arising from local density gradients could be tilted/stretched into funnel clouds. -- Outlook -- Dew points remain uncomfortably high through Monday. Saturday will be rather hot as another plume of warmer temperatures from the western US advects over our area. A positively tilted upper level shortwave trough propagating along the US/Canada border Sunday to Monday with its associated surface low and cold front will provide us with a decent chance of rain. At this time it appears the upper level jet may be too far north, which would limit shear and severe weather potential. Forecast soundings don`t look overly unstable either but they do look to have deep moisture and high PW values, so rainfall could still be meaningful. Toward midweek, a return to the common pattern of much of the summer as ridging amplifies over the northern Rockies and troughing digs into Ontario/Quebec which would provide us with more comfortable and mostly dry weather.
Loving the fact its Friday and the first week of August is about over we be marching fast towards Fall such a piece of cake in the temperature department this Summer nothing very hot great Scotty… Have a fantastic weekend MV’s best …INDY
Found another house on my street with a big limb laying down in it. That’s a few miles south of me in the small town of Mulliken in northern Eaton County. Lots of limbs down. That little town took a pretty good hit.
Phew warm start to August in what has been a warm summer. So far, CPC and Accuweather both say a couple more warm months are ahead.
Last evening was a nice August evening- red sun with distant thunderstorm clouds around 8 and then the Perseid meteor shower closer to 11. It remained rather warm and muggy all night but with the return of more clouds this morning.
Third consecutive day with the low remaining above 70, and humid too. I just mowed on Tuesday and I need to mow again this weekend. Before Tuesday, I believe I only mowed twice in the past five to seven weeks. It’s amazing what some precipitation (2″ in two days) can do.
What a summer and now the Fall outlook calls for more near normal temps! What a summer and now the great cool temp pattern will persist right into Fall and then hopefully a cold and snowy winter! Bring it on baby! Incredible!