I will be pulling up the last tomato plant today along with my peppers, the onions can stay in the ground as they can weather through the winter as can potatoes if you keep them covered with lots of mulch. My wife has all of her flower bulbs pulled up and ready for winter storage in the basement. Seems I just planted the things. I mulch most of the tree leaves with the lawn tractor so the mower deck will remain in place before it is time to replace it with the snow plow and tire chains.
Forecast
U.S.A and Global Events for October 16th:
1944: The 1944 Cuba – Florida hurricane, also known as the Pinar del Rio Hurricane, struck western Cuba on this day as a Category 4. This storm killed an estimated 300 people in Cuba and nine in Florida. This hurricane is currently the 7th costliest U.S. Atlantic hurricane, with an estimated $46.9 billion (2015 USD) in damages.
The image above is courtesy of the National Hurricane Center.
The rainfall graphic above is courtesy of the Weather Prediction Center.
1988: An F2 tornado carved a 6-mile long, east-northeast path through a mostly rural area of north-central Indiana. The extremely slow-moving tornado touched down 1.5 miles north of Nappanee, just 300 yards north of a high school, and shortly after that moved through a subdivision where 11 homes sustained damage.
The information above is courtesy of Storm Data.
1999: Hurricane Irene moved across the Florida Keys producing heavy rainfall, strong winds, and high waves. A gust of 102 mph was reported in Big Pine Key.
The image above is from a tweet by the NWS Office in Key West, Florida.
2007: A blinding sandstorm in the high desert north of Los Angeles wreaks havoc with local traffic causing a highway pileup involving dozens of vehicles. Two people died, and 16 were injured as a result of the storm, which reportedly raised dust to 1000 feet high.
2015: A well-defined waterspout was visible from Marquette, Michigan. 
The image above is from a tweet by the NWS Office in Marquette, Michigan.
Forecast Discussion
- Mostly Cloudy Today into Tuesday Northerly low level flow today will switch to westerly by Tuesday. RAP13 and NAM12 RH progs indicate abundant moisture at the 925mb level today and from 925-850mb Tuesday as flow backs westerly. There may be some partial clearing late this afternoon and into early Tuesday, but this will likely not be substantial. As a result, will be going with a bit more pessimistic sky coverage for today into Tuesday. In terms of lake effect precipitation, there is a possibility for a few rain showers to push off the lake Tuesday and impact areas west of US 131. These look to be quite light if they do occur. If skies clear a bit more than anticipated later tonight, some frost will be possible especially across interior central Lower Michigan. Surface winds will diminish considerably, perhaps calm to a few mph across much of the region. However, no additional frost/freeze headlines will be issued for the season as October 15 was the final day for those. - Unsettled Pattern Resumes After a brief period of shortwave ridging Tuesday night into Wednesday, another impressive upper trough drops into the GrtLks Rgn Thursday and continues to impact our weather into the weekend. Ahead of this feature, somewhat milder temps are expected on Wednesday with showers arriving by Wednesday night in strong warm advection pattern. An upper low is progged to be directly overhead on Thursday as the main longwave trough further amplifies, digging all the way south into the Gulf (thanks to a 140kt jet diving south through the back side of the trough). A thunder threat looks plausible Thursday afternoon and evening as the cold pool aloft moves in overhead, especially if any breaks in the cloud cover occur. The combo of H5 temps colder than -20C and 50F sfc dew point would support a hail risk should any deeper convection develop. While the upper low departs to the east Thursday night, clouds and a few showers will linger into Friday due to moist cyclonic flow and cold advection pattern in it`s wake. Then, another (clipper-like) shortwave is shown to drop in from the northwest for Friday night and Saturday, delivering additional rain showers to the region. PoPs eventually trend lower by Sunday as the main energy within the big upper trough shifts toward New England and our low level flow goes northerly. However strong cold advection pattern with H8 temps falling to -5C will probably keep some clouds around and support lake effect showers hugging the coast.
Still in a prolonged period of below normal temps! Wow, just wow?
Still no 32 degrees or lower temps in the forecasts! Already past the point where we normally have our first freeze!
I personally enjoy the second half of October. Probably one of the most unique times of the year. And these temps in the 50s are great (to me)!
My grass is still growing. Looks to be pleasant temps the next couple weeks. I remember snowflakes on Halloween before – not happening this year.
Overall snow on Halloween is not that common. At Grand Rapids the record is 1.5” in 1917, there was 0.4” in 2017, 0.3” in 1932 and 0.1” in 2019 there have been 7 other times with a trace. At Lansing the record is 0.8” in 2019 with several other times with a trace. At Muskegon the record is just a trace with the last times being 2019, 2017 and 2014. One the east side Detroit the record snow fall in 0.1” in 1993. At Flint they had recorded 0.7” in 2014 and 0.4” in 2019. At Saginaw the record is… Read more »
Of course snow on Halloween is not common! The warm weather fanatics try and find any tidbit of data to spew warm weather nonsense!
We need to mulch with our pine needles that have fallen. Report some of the house plants that have grown to much this summer.
Hope everyone had a good past couple days. I have been in Wisconsin. Went there to see some of the colors. We always do fall rides in Michigan so we went to Wisconsin for a change. Anywhere in Eastern, Northern, and Central Wisconsin. Decent weather except for one day of rain and wind. Wisconsin gets more sunshine than we do which is nice. My family and I liked Wisconsin so much we may consider a move there sometime.
Wisconsin gets COLD!
In winter yes but less snow is the trade off
Yesterday was yet another below normal temp day! Let’s keep this rolling right into winter baby! Bring it!
The official H/L yesterday was 57/41 there was 0.01” of rain fall there was no snowfall. The day had 16 HDD’s The highest wind gust was 27 MPH out of the NW. The sun was out 33% of the time. For today the average H/L is 61/42 the record high of 83 was set in 1938 and the record low of 25 was set in 1944 and 1977. The record rain fall amount of 1.78” fell in 2016, the record snow fall is a trace on several years the last time was in 2004. Last year the H/L was 52/39… Read more »