weather history

  We are now at the halfway point of January 2025 according to The Accumulated Winter Season Severity Index all the locations in southern Lower Michigan are having a moderate winter so far. Here in Grand Rapids, we are near the border line of moderate/average. All major locations according to the index in southern lower…

Today the Earth is the closest it will be in 2025 to the sun. This is called perihelion.   For 2025, our closest point comes at 6AM this morning at that time we will be at  91,405,993 miles from the sun. In early January, we’re about 3% closer to the sun – roughly 1.5 million miles. So,…

2024 will soon come to an end. We now turn our attention to January and a new year. With the new month and new year, it is time to take a look at some January averages and some past records. In looking at January’s averages one can see that it has been getting warmer. The…

As holiday lights brighten streets and the season of cheer unfolds, Dec. 21 marks the winter solstice a reminder that the longest hours of darkness of the year is upon us. The winter solstice occurs this year on Saturday, Dec. 21 At 4:20 a.m. ET, the solstice will take place, marking “the beginning of winter…

Back when I was a kid one of the family traditions, we had was decorating the Christmas tree on December 18th. Ok some years it might have been a day or two before the 18th but the 18 was the day on most years.  That was the day my mother’s family had handed down to her…

Have you ever wondered just how many days during the winter that Grand Rapids has a snow cover of at least 1 inch? Here in Grand Rapids the mean average seasonal (October to April) will have 70 days with 1” or more, 57 with 2” or more, 47 with 3” or more. 38 with 4”…

A new record snowfall at Grand Rapids was set yesterday with 9.2” officially reported at GRR. Here in MBY I recorded a total of 6” and now have 5” on the ground. The official H/L yesterday at GR was 28/24 there was that record 9.2” of snowfall. The highest wind gust was 30 MPH out…

We are now at the half way point of November and yesterday was also the start of firearm deer season in Michigan. Here is some weather history for the start of deer season at several locations in Michigan. Growing up in Bay City and Alpena, the start of the  firearm deer season was always a…

The of Gales of  November It has been a while since there has been a huge wind storm on the Great Lakes That said the Great Lake Region had two big storms on the same date, one in 1975 and the other in 1998. First the 1975 storm, the one that brought down the Edmund…

November is the last of the “Fall” months and it can at times be close to a winter month. The average H/L starts out at 53.6/37.8 and falls to 41.0/28.6 by the 30th. The warmest mean for November is 47.6 in 1931 and the coldest mean is 31.0 in 1951. The record high for the…