What a strange early summer we have had! No rain and smoke have been our headlines for the month of June thus far. Our last measurable rainfall was May 19 with .14 of an inch (in Otsego) and the last decent rain was at the beginning of May. We will continue with this pattern for today into tomorrow before the hope for rain late tomorrow. We have another Air quality action day in place for central and southern Michigan.
…Air Quality Alert Until Noon EDT Today…
The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has declared an Action Day through Noon EDT today for elevated levels of fine particulate. Pollutants are expected to be in the unhealthy for sensitive groups range, with some hourly concentrations reaching the unhealthy range.
Smoke Plume Map
Grand Rapids Forecast
6 9 gr
Elevated fire danger continues today as we remain dry. For information about burning in your county, visit: www.michigan.gov/dnr. Rainfall is expected this weekend into early next week, which should help alleviate some of the concerns.
Forecast Discussion
Little in the way of concern in the Today through Saturday period. Mainly dry weather is forecast throughout, with clear to partly cloudy skies today and tonight. Clouds will be on the increase on Saturday in advance of an upper trough diving south into the area in northerly upper flow. The SREF has 20-40 pops across Central Lower and we have gone with 20-30 percent pops in the late afternoon and evening. Bulk of the more active weather is beyond the short term. The HRRR smoke model shows very much the same story as the last couple of days. Plenty of vertically integrated smoke in place through the course of the day today, so the sky will be a bit opaque at times. The near surface smoke has a push into the area early this morning, lingering through the morning and slowly sinking south in the afternoon. Bottom line...much of the same as we have seen lately. Not expecting major restrictions to surface visibility as the magnitude of the smoke in Western Lower Michigan is not overly high. - Chance for showers Saturday night through Tuesday - A significant wx pattern change will occur Sunday through Tuesday as a closed upper low meanders slowly across our region. This system will bring cooler conditions and fairly extensive cloud cover and occasional showers. Shower potential will be enhanced from time to time by several vort maxes which will rotate around the upper low. Convective potential looks quite low given weak instability. Latest GEFS/ECMWF ensembles support potential for at least a half an inch of rainfall Sunday through Tuesday. However considerable variability in rainfall across our area is expected. Rainfall amounts could range from under a quarter of an inch in some spots to around two inches or greater as shown by some of the deterministic medium range guidance where rain showers are heaviest/most persistent. - Fair weather returns Wednesday and Thursday - The upper low will finally move east of our region by Wednesday. Fair wx will return Wed/Thur along with a moderating trend of temps as an upper ridge begins to build in from the west in this time frame.
GREAT news….. no heat waves in sight!!
Spent the day in Saginaw. Hazier here than there. Lots of traffic on I-75 heading north for the weekend. It is another beautiful day.
Just made a couple batches of strawberry freezer jam… I love fresh fruit & veggie season!
That’s sounds yummy. 😀
That is the best!!
Good morning from Gaylord. Beautiful start to today solid blue sky. On the way up here we got off the Grayling exit and drove through the wildfire zone. It’s a very large area and quite something to see.
Just got back from beautiful Montana! Awesome thunderhead clouds over the mountains every afternoon. Lightning shows in the distance every night. High temps in the low to mid 70’s. Multicolored sunsets we seldom see here. It was pure heaven on earth.
Bring on the rain and let’s keep this incredible cool pattern rocking! Wow!!!
Yesterday Indy asked.
Slim when was the last time GR had a thunderstorm?? Storms seem to be a thing of the past now forecast smoke coming crazy …INDY
The last time thunder was reported at Grand Rapids was on May 7th So far this year at Grand Rapids there have only been 1 report of thunder in May, 4 in April and 1 in March. For a total of only 6 so far this year
Slim
Wow!! Sure missing thunderstorms hopefully soon we can hear thunder again around here thanks Slim ..INDY
The official H/L at Grand Rapids yesterday was 77/49 there was no rain fall. There was 87% of possible sunshine and 0 CDD’s and 2 HDD’s In the last 32 days there has only been a total of 0.04” of rain fall. Today will be day 33.
For today the average H/L is 78/57 the record high of 93 was set in 1964 and 2020 the record low of 37 was set in 1969. The record rain fall of 1.77” fell in 1963.
Slim
We are still on tap for a good chance of rain starting on Saturday night into Tuesday. It will also turn much cooler for Sunday to Tuesday with highs only in the 60’s Highs that cool in mid June are not unheard of but not all that common either.
Slim
So does this low coming this weekend push us out of the omega block? I would love to see that gone for good. And maybe a restoration of a more varied pattern and the return of some westerly winds. Haha.