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Fall Allergies

Posted on by MichaelV (Otsego)

I have noticed a lot of people sneezing and snorting the past week or so due to fall allergies.  This is the time of year when weeds are putting out their pollen especially ragweed.  A single plant can produce one billion pollen grains per season. Ragweed grows abundantly throughout the South, North, and Midwest, and its lightweight pollen grains can travel up to 400 miles in the wind.

Outdoor molds are another cause of fall allergies. They first appear in early spring, but thrive until the first frost. They are common in soil, compost piles, and in the leaves that cover the ground during the fall.  In temperate climates, mold spores form a distinct fall season in mid to late fall, after ragweed season is over. Mold spores are common airborne allergens. They are light, very small, and easily inhaled into the lungs. Spores rise high in the atmosphere during the warming of the day, falling back to the ground with the cool of evening.

Decongestants and antihistamines fly off the shelves from spring through fall at your local store, some even have to get shots to ease the suffering.  For myself I just muddle along in silence unless of course I burst into a sneezing fit….

…and now for our weekly weather History…..

September 23

2006: Small tornadoes hit Caledonia in Kent County and Muir in Montcalm County. The Caledonia tornado did some roof damage to a storage facility and a barn. The Muir tornado caused no structural damage but took down some tree limbs.

September 24

1950: Smoke from Canadian forest fires gave the sun an eerie bluish cast and darkened the sky across western Michigan.

September 25

1961: Widespread, heavy rain causes some flooding across western Michigan. Record daily rainfall totals occur at Muskegon, Lansing and Grand Rapids. The 3.52 inches of rain at Grand Rapids is a record total for any day in September.

September 26

1951: A tornado killed one person and injured three others near Bitely in Newaygo County. The tornado destroyed a tavern, carrying steel beams from the roof about 70 yards.

1965: Wet snow mixes in with rain across parts of western Michigan for a very early taste of winter.

1998: The temperature hits a record high of 89 degrees at both Grand Rapids and Lansing. The warm weather fuels a severe weather outbreak across the region as a cold front arrives during the late afternoon. A severe thunderstorm produced softball-sized hail in Clare County which smashed skylights, dented automobiles, and damaged roofs and antennas. Damage was estimated at up to half a million dollars.

September 27

1942: Snowflakes fly across Lower Michigan as temperatures fall to the lower 30s and only rise into the 40s during the day.

2009: A microburst with winds up to 70 mph struck just northeast of Greenville in Montcalm County. About a dozen trees were downed and a travel trailer was tipped over.

September 28

1991: A record freeze hits western Michigan. Grand Rapids falls to 27 degrees, setting record lows for the date and month. Muskegon also hits 27 degrees, setting a record for that date and tying the monthly low. Lansing plunges to 22 degrees, tying the record low for the date set in 1893.

September 29

1953: Temperatures soared to the 90s across western Michigan. Grand Rapids hit 93 degrees and Muskegon 92 degrees, both record highs and records for the latest date of a 90 degree reading.

1967: Wet snowflakes fell at Grand Rapids and Lansing. The high of 42 degrees at Lansing is the coldest high temperature for the month of September.

1986: A severe weather outbreak produces high winds, large hail and two tornadoes across Lower Michigan. One person was injured in Van Buren County as a tornado hit near Mattawan. Six houses were destroyed by a tornado near Rankin in Genesee County.

2006: Several waterspouts were observed on Lake Michigan. One was about 5 miles offshore of Holland, while another was sighted just offshore of Saugatuck. This waterspout approached the coast and may have come onshore, but no damage was noted.

We managed .06 of and inch of rain yesterday in Otsego.  Most of the storm action occurred along the southern tear of counties – the heaviest rainfall totals reported thus far from CoCoRaHS are around the Detroit/Ann Arbor area where one to two and a half inches fell.

We have a cool day in store with temperatures struggling to reach 60°.  Our next chance of rain come Thursday night through Friday night.  The weekend looks to be mainly dry with rain and storms moving back in Sunday night – the first half of next week looks to be active once again…

Here is a screen shot from the South Haven GRERL cam this morning – looks ominous to me….

 

 

Category: Michigan Weather Forecast

34 thoughts on “Fall Allergies”

  4. Hey Barry crank your Dome open today it’s sunny outside your green trees may need it lol!! Yes 80*s happen in October not looking verry good for this October would not surprise me if October is below normal with all of the snow and cold just north of the state of Michigan and with winds out of the north like today we are feeling it cool temps it’s only going to get colder I’m afraid summer is done just the facts ….INDY!!

    1. Well take it up with Bill then. He just mentioned yesterday on the news that he did not believe we were done with the 80’s yet this year. I would assume he knows more than both of us combined.

  5. Hey Slim, maybe you can provide some stats……Indy seems to think hitting 80 in October is a rare or “dream occurrence, I’d say it is not that rare. Hard stats should prove one way or another.

    1. Going back 100 years (it make it easier to get a %) there have been 46 Octobers were the temperature hit at least 80 once that comes out at a 46% chance of it happening
      Slim

      1. Thanks Slim! I would have guessed around half of the time, and that appears to be accurate.

  8. If September were to end today with a current mean temperature of 68.9° this would be the 2nd warmest September on record here in Grand Rapids. We will have to see how much of that mean we lose over the next 5 days. The high for today at Grand Rapids has more likely than not already been set at 66°
    Slim

  9. No big surprise, but that line of storms last night all but fizzled out right before it reached us. We only received a drizzle of rain.

  11. 2 weeks ago I mentioned artic air coming the first week of October crazzy!! Loving this cool fresh morning! INDY!!

    1. No, that’s one GFS outlier run, and he doesn’t believe it. But yes, we have seen snow in 4 of the last 5 Octobers.

    2. It has happened before. I previously mentioned that my sis-in-law got married outside on October 5, 2001, and it snowed that day.

  13. It is also almost October and 95% of the trees in the greater GR area are still green. I saw Traverse City expects a late peak color this year. October 11-21 is their guess.

    1. Look k at the Houghton webcam on the side of this page,almost everything is green yet, and that’s is way up in the UP.

  14. My allergies peaked about 2 or 3 weeks ago, but now they are not to bad. Stopped taking meds for them 2 days ago. Of course the humidity yesterday didn’t help to much.

  15. Contrary to some on here that said the 80’s were over, GR hit 80 degrees yesterday. It was a very mild +14 degree above average day.

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