Last week there was a discussion as to how the winter of 2021/22 will go down in history. I made the comment that it was a rather “typical near average” winter season. There was some disagreement on that and one of the tools that was used in that disagreement was The Midwestern Regional Climate Centers, AWSSI. I wrote the center and here is the reply that I received.
“Hi James,
Thank you for reaching out to the Midwestern Regional Climate Center with your question about the severity of winter conditions in Grand Rapids, MI. I would classify the winter as near-average based on the most common climate variables (temperature, precipitation, snowfall) and the AWSSI. Of course, severity can be judged by factors that aren’t included in AWSSI or not reflected in a seasonal average, such as wind speed, wind chill, and the duration and extremes of temperature events.
For AWSSI, I included an image here of the timeseries tracking Grand Rapids over the cold season. The thick black line shows that November was near normal while December eventually dipped into the mild category (we had near-record warmth all across the Midwest in December). Come early January, conditions quickly came back near normal as a more typical winter pattern set in. The index was average for most of February and has been right on the cusp between average and moderate throughout March.
Looking at meteorological winter and other time periods across the cold season, it’s helpful to see how conditions rank compared to previous seasons. In terms of temperatures, Grand Rapids was near normal for most time periods (see attached ranking table). Precipitation overall was in the top third for meteorological winter, and in the top ten for February alone. However, as you noted, snowfall came in below average as more precipitation was falling as rain instead of snow.
None of the indicators I looked at, for the winter as a whole, suggested conditions were unusually above or below normal. December was very mild, but the rest of the cold season was pretty uneventful from a climatological standpoint.
I hope this is useful. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information.
Melissa
Melissa Widhalm
Associate Director/Regional Climatologist
Midwestern Regional Climate Center”
As I stated last week the winter of 2021/22 was a typical mostly near average winter season here at Grand Rapids
Ready or not we have now slipped into the month of April. While there can be times of spring like weather in March it is not until April that we see more and more spring like weather. And even in April it still can get cold at times. My wife’s birthday is April 22nd on her birthday the average H/L of 60.7/41.7 in just her life time it has been as warm as 84 (1985) In Grand Rapids and and as high as 87 (in Bay City) we moved here in May of 1984. And the high has been as cold as 40 in 2015 and 2002 and the low has been as cold as 20 in 2020 and it was 25 in 2021. And there has been snow fall in 1984, 1969, and 1963 in Bay City and here in Grand Rapids there was snow on her birthday in 2002, 2015, 2020 and 2021. The all time record coldest maximum for any April 22 at GR is 38 in 1938 the record low is that 24 in 2020 the record high is 86 in 1980 and it has snowed in 11 years on April 22nd at Grand Rapids.
The 30 year average mean is 47.6° at Grand Rapids the average precip is 3.99” and on average 2.0” of snow falls. At Lansing the average mean is 47.0 with 3.26” of precip and 1.7” of snow fall. At Muskegon the mean is 46.8 with 3.47” of rain/melted snow and 1.8” of snow fall. At Grand Rapids the average length of daylight is 12hrs 44 min on the 1st and is up to 14hrs 04min on the 30th that is about the same as from September 10th to August 12th The daily average H/L at Grand Rapids starts out at 52.4/32.3 on the 1st up to 57.6/36.8 on the 15th and is at 63.9/42.9 on the 30th
The warmest mean at Grand Rapids in April is 57.8 in 1915. 53.7 in 2010 is in 2nd place. The coldest mean in April is 37.6 in 1907. The mean was 40.1 in 2018 and that is good for 4th place. The wettest April is the 11.10” that fell in 2013 and there was major flooding that year. The driest is 1942 when just 0.36” of rain/melted snow fell. The most snow fall in April is the 15.6” that fell in 1961 the 12.4” that fell in 1982 is in 2nd place. In 9 years, there has been no snow that fell in April. The last time that happened was in 1998 the last time just a trace fell was in 2012. The record high in April is 90 on April 29th 1899. A high of 88 on April 29th, 1970, is in 2nd pace and the high reached 86 on April 18th, 2004. The record low is +3 on April 7th, 1982, and there was 7” of snow on the ground that day. The coldest maximum is 27 on April 4th and again on the 5th
Now it is time to set back and see how April 2022 plays out.
Slim
Had to make a run to the state of Illinois today. Great traveling there but then it did start raining and started mixing with snow. It then changed back to rain driving back in Northwest Indiana back to a mix in Michigan. I then had all snow by Saugatuck to Hudsonville with minor accumulations beginning. Now at home where it’s 37 and a mix.
What a storm!
About the time you wrote I was on my way to Meijers to pickup groceries. The fog was really moving in.
Well the rain turned to snow here and it is snowing like crazy! It won’t last long. 🙂
Wow, accumulating snow in April! What a winter, that just keeps giving! Let it Snow, Let it a snow, Let it Snow!!!!
Loving the CPC more and more. Very mild starting the second week of April and lasting pretty much all month! Wow!
Lol!
We literally have heard this from you since February! Too funny!
Have you ever heard of Hector? Me either.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/02/weather/weather-thunderstorm-hector-australia/index.html
No I have not heard of that. When I started reading the story the first this I thought of is Florida where there are storms some where in the summer on most days but not the same location and at the same time. Hector or the Hector effect is not mentioned in the areas climate “The Tiwi Islands have a tropical monsoon climate, (Köppen Am), with 2,000 mm (79 in) of rainfall on northern Bathurst Island and 1,200 to 1,400 mm (47 to 55 in) on eastern Melville Island.[65] The wet season from November to April brings the islands the… Read more »
With a official high of just 37 yesterday was a very cold start to April. And the overnight low of of at least 23 will be one of the colder lows for April 2nd so a cold start to April 2022. At the current time it is a frosty 22 here in MBY.
Slim
Yes we have been in a cool pattern for quite awhile!
No doubt this winter was near normal, not the hyped warmer and less snow winter that was spewed and hyped all winter long but mookie (fake news)! Even though it was a near normal winter, there was not a major warm up so for outdoor winter sports it was fantastic! GREAT WINTER for skiing, ice skating ice fishing, etc! Who knew!
It was definitely great for winter sports. Best event of the winter was February 2 (for inland zones near Lansing)I expected about 7” at my house and got 10” (Lansing 13”) Incredible when things perform above expectations! Looking foreword to a 2011 style blizzard again one year.
IMO, winter seemed fairly average. I used the snowblower three times. No Polar Vortex. No long periods of below or above temps.
My theory is that the past few years have been so mild, we forgot what a normal winter is like.
February 2 was the highlight of the winter for us living near Lansing
That was a beast of a snow storm.
Fairly average is a good disruption of this past winter. Right on the borderline of average/moderate. If not for a very mild December it would have been a very average wither.
Slim