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A look at New Years and January averages

Posted on by Slim

Looking NE on Aruba.

 

 

With New Years eve and day coming up this week, Here is a little weather history for New Years eve and New Years day here in Grand Rapids.
For December 31st
Warmest 60° in 1965. Coldest -14° in 1976. Warmest minimum 45° in 2010 Coldest maximum 12° in 2017. Most snow fall was 9.7” in 1957. Most snow on the ground was 13” in 2000 and 1909. Last year GR had that record coldest high of 12° and a low of -7° and there was 7” of snow on the ground. Over the years the average high is 32° and the average low is 20.
At Muskegon the record high is 58° in 2010 (it was a cooler 53 in that warm year of 1965) the record low is -15 in 1976 the warmest minimum is 48 in 2010 the coldest maximum is 15 in 1976, The most snow fall was 6.0” in 1981 and the most snow on the ground was 26” in 1963. Last year the high/low was 16/-6 and there was 17” of snow on the ground.
At Lansing the record high is a reported 70 in 1875 and in more modern times 61 in 1965. The record low is -15 in 1976 the warmest minimum is 44 in 2017 and the coldest maximum is 9 in 1880 with a 13 in 2017. The most snow fall is 10.9” in 1927 and the most on the ground was 16” in 2000. Last year the H/L was 13/-4 and there was 4” of snow on the ground.
For January 1st
For the first day of the year the average high (over the years of record) is 32° and the average low is 19. The warmest 56° in 1897 (or 66° in 1895 I tossed out the 1895 record as the low was reported as +15 on both December 31 and the 1st and the high low on January 2nd was reported as 20/15) the coldest low as -15° in 1968 the warmest minimum was 40 in 1950. The coldest maximum was 13° in 1968. The most snow fall was 5.7” in 1995 and the most of the ground was 12” in 2001. Last year the high was 15 the low was 7 and there was 7” of snow reported on the ground.
At Muskegon the record warmest 57 in 2011 and the record low is -9 in 1964 the warmest minimum is 40 in 1950 the coldest maximum is 11 in 1968 the biggest snow fall was 6.6’ in 1948 and the most of the ground was 24” in 1964. Last year the h/l was 16/9 and there was 16” of snow on the ground.
At Lansing the warmest New Years day was 65 in 1876 (in modern times it was 54 in 2011) the record low is -23 in 1864 (modern times -13 in 1964) the coldest maximum is 11 in 1968. Last year the H/L at Lansing was 12/3 and there was 4” of snow on the ground.
Looking ahead to January.
The average high/low is very constant for Grand Rapids in a average January at 31/18 this starts out on the 1st as 31/20 and ends the month at 31/18. We average around 22.2” of snow. On average it is cloudy 78% of the time and clear only 12% of the time. Here is a good stat for you. The wind is out of the west 18% the south 16% SW 14% E 13% NE 9% N 7 % and SE 7%.
Here are some records for January for Grand Rapids.
The warmest day was 66° on January 25th 1950. The warmest mean temperature for a January was 34.2° in 1932. The coldest night was -22° on January 19th 1994. The coldest mean for a January was 11.8° in 1912. The wettest January was 6.00” in 1897 that January was warm and wet temperature was +5.1° and there was only 4.9” of snow that month. The most snow for the month is 46.8” in 1999. The most reported for a 24hr period is 16.1” on January 26th 1978. The most on the ground was 27” on January 27th 1978. It should be noted that January 1979 and 2014 had many days with over 18” of snow on the ground. The highest wind reported in Grand Rapids for January is 73 MPH on January 10th 1950 Note the highest wind of 79MPH was also in1950 on May 5th The high on that day in 1950 was 54° and the low was 23° there was 0.26” of rain and no snow was reported.
So now we will see how January 2019 will play out

Todays official high at Grand Rapids will be 53° That will make today the warmest it has been at Grand Rapids since October 31st when the high was 57° This will be the 5th warmest December 28th (for the high) in Grand Rapids history.  At this point the mean at Grand Rapids is 32.4° (+2.8) and there has been just 2.4” of snow fall at this time Grand Rapids is in 4th place for the least amount of December snow fall.  It is looking like Grand Rapids will end up this winter with less then 70” of snow and depending on how January ends up we could end up with less then 60” with even less then 50” not out of the question.

Slim

Category: Michigan Weather Forecast, Slim

20 thoughts on “A look at New Years and January averages”

    1. Looks great! The 8-14 day is showing warmer and dryer than normal now too. If winter does ever arrive it will be short.

      1. Very short! I posted yesterday how technically the average temps begin to rise around January 20th. That’s also around when we see a big drop off in snow beginning.

    1. Ha! That was a while back, but still funny to watch. I love the guy peeking in at the end.

    1. We were out your way last night! Went to the Hudsonville Vitale’s, great place. So much better than the Zeeland one.

      2. Our son will be playing in a hockey tournament at Griff’s in Holland. Maybe we’ll check it out while we’re in the area.

  7. Good morning we have a nice blanket of snow on the ground out at thee YARDofBRICKS beautiful outside! As we get close to a new year I want to thank MV and Slim for a nother fabulous year on a fabulous blog with a busy weekend ahead INDY says Happy New years MV’S best let’s Storm into 2019 together!! Have a wonderful but safe weekend! INDY!!

    1. Just a trace of snow here on the ground with some light snow falling at this time. I would like to point one thing out while I am not sure just were you or Rocky live I have very good reasons to believe you (along with Sandy, Barry and Lansing Mark) live in west Michigan. While it dose not matter where they live there are others I am not so sure. Have a great weekend.
      Slim

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