As the NWS office here in Grand Rapids is not issuing the daily percentage of sunshine, I will be posting in my daily climate report either Cooling Degree Days and or Heating Degree Days. So, what is a Cooling Degree Day (CDD)? And what is a Heating Degree Day(HDD)? Heating Degree Days (HDD) is an…
weather history
Heating & Cooling Degree Days
The Great May Snowstorm
The great Michigan May 9th, 1923, snowstorm. Not since records have been kept in Southeast Lower Michigan (Detroit as far back as 1870), has the snowstorm of May 9th in 1923 been equaled in season lateness and magnitude. A strong cold front, of Arctic origin, pushed across Southeast Michigan on the afternoon of the 8th,…
Merry month of May
Merry month of May Welcome to the merry month of May. According to a English travel site this is the weather that can be expected in the month of May here in Michigan. “May brings bright sunshine to Michigan as the cold and windy conditions abate significantly. The average daily temperatures are in the pleasant 58°F (14.4°C) to…
Michigan Tornadoes
It has been a great fun run. I have been writing posts in this weather blog for a long time. 1st in Bill’s blog that ran for many years and then here in Michael’s blog for several more years. But change is the name of the game. And looking ahead we will still be doing…
Easter Weekend
Warmest/Coldest This April so far has been on the cool and wet side, it will not end up as either the coldest or warmest April of record so far at Grand Rapids However, I thought I would look at the warmest and coldest Aprils in Grand Rapids history this week. The warmest April at Grand…
Christchurch, New Zealand
Ever wonder what it would be like if we lived at about the same latitude in the Southern Hemisphere? In New Zealand the city of Christchurch is located at 43° 31’ south so it is about as far south of the Equator as we are north of it. And thus, their summer is in December,…
Soon it will be April
Soon it will be April On Tuesday we flip the calendar to April. April is sort of a birthday month in our family as my dear departed mother was born on April 7th My wife was born on the 22nd and my youngest son was born on April 1st. In 1986 the year my son…
Shaking All over!
1964 Alaska earthquake Thursday next week marks the 61st anniversary of the strongest earthquake to hit North America. The quake was centered about 74 miles southeast of Anchorage. Just about all of Alaska felt the 9.2 earthquake. It was reported that the Space Needle in Seattle some 1200 miles away wobbled. At 5:36 p.m. on…
March Heat Wave
March Heat wave We generally do not think of the term “Heat Wave” when we think of the Month of March but in March of 2012, we had a very remarkable warm event take place. This was not a one or two day “warm” spell that we sometimes get in March but instead lasted for…
March and Meteorological Spring
Today we flipped the calendar to not only March but to the start of meteorological spring. While we can swing between some mild days and some cold days. The hours of daylight are getting longer and here in Grand Rapids, we gain 1hr and 31m of daylight in the 31 days of (March). With the…