Reality has returned and slapped us in the face. Our low temp at 4 am yesterday was 64°, it is 42° at 4 am this morning after the passage of the cold front. Our record string of 70° days has passed by and our temp today will struggle to reach 50° after a high of 75° yesterday. We had .50 of an inch of rain overnight falling mainly between 9 to 11 pm which brings our total to .68 for the month.
Happy Veterans Day to all who have served in our armed services. I wonder how many actually understand the sacrifices made and time taken from their lives to serve our country. Thanks to all for your service for our freedom we enjoy. Oorah! Hooah! Hooyah!
Weather History
Note: our string of record 70° days will be added next year.
November 8
1921: A record early season snowstorm buries Lower Michigan with over a foot of heavy, wet snow in some places. Lansing measures 18.9 inches for its greatest November snowfall on record.
1991: A vast flow of arctic air dominates the Midwest during early November, 1991. Several inches of snow fall from the 2nd through the 6th followed by the passage of a cold dome of high pressure that sets record lows of 11 degrees at Lansing and 16 degrees at Grand Rapids on this date.
November 9
1913: A massive storm that became known as The White Hurricane sank numerous ships on the Great Lakes and caused millions of dollars in damage across Michigan. This storm was one of the deadliest and most destructive natural disasters to hit the Great Lakes, killing more than 250 people while wrecking 19 ships and stranding 19 others. The financial loss in vessels alone was nearly five million dollars, or about 100 million dollars at current value. Lost cargo, such as coal, iron ore, and grain was estimated at over 68,000 tons.
November 10
1975: A powerful storm brought high winds across Lower Michigan, toppling trees and power lines. A tornado was spun up by the storm, damaging mobile homes and a barn in Allegan County. The Edmund Fitzgerald sank in Lake Superior during the storm, with a crew of 29 men. There were no survivors. The ore carrier left Superior, Wisconsin on November 9 loaded with 26,116 tons of taconite pellets. The cargo was to be delivered to Detroit, but the ship ran into winds of at least 60 mph and high waves and foundered at about 730 pm north of Whitefish Point.
1998: A November storm lashes the Great Lakes with wind gusts up to 90 mph. Over 167,000 homes were without power and cleanup efforts were extensive as many homes and businesses suffered roof and siding damage and thousands of trees were blown down. The high winds literally blew much of the water out of Saginaw Bay, with the water level dropping several feet and large sections of the Bay becoming dry land for a time. A waterspout on Lake Michigan briefly moved inland near Muskegon, but rapidly dissipated and caused no damage.
November 11
1911: A tornado outbreak strikes the Midwest, killing more than a dozen people. Nine people are killed as a violent tornado hits Janesville, Wisconsin. Within an hour, survivors of the storm were digging out in near-blizzard conditions with zero degree temperatures. In Michigan, a tornado kills two people and injures 21 others as it destroys five factories and 21 homes in the northern part of Owosso in Shiawassee County. Another tornado hits southeast of Battle Creek in Calhoun County, leveling barns and taking the roofs off homes. A tornado near Kingsland in Eaton County kills cattle and horses.
1940: The Armistice Day storm strikes with hurricane force winds, producing blizzard conditions across Minnesota and mountainous waves on Lake Michigan, where five vessels are lost, claiming 66 lives.
1995: A strong cold front passage is followed by high winds and lake effect snow. From three to seven inches of snow fell across Ottawa and Kent Counties in a six hour period. The heavy snowfall combined with high winds caused widespread power outages due to tree limbs falling and lines breaking. In South Haven a garage roof was destroyed by a falling tree. Power outages affected more than 50,000 people.
November 12
1873: Winter arrives early with 5 inches of snow at Lansing, followed by a string of record lows in the single digits, including a 1 degree reading on the morning of the 13th.
November 13
1986: High temperatures are held in the upper teens to lower 20s as arctic air pours into Lower Michigan. The high of 19 degrees at Grand Rapids is a record for the date and the coldest high temperature for so early in the season.
November 14
1908: Heavy snow falls across western Lower Michigan with a total of 16 inches at Muskegon, a record total for any November day.
Wow lows in the 20’s overnight now we are taking!!! INDY
“The high winds literally blew much of the water out of Saginaw Bay, with the water level dropping several feet and large sections of the Bay becoming dry land for a time.” That’s crazy!
On this day, my brother and I usually get together to enjoy a free lunch. With the pandemic raging, we decided against it this year. I did run through the drive thru this morning and grabbed a free doughnut from Dunkin. Happy Veterans Day. A report from earlier this year stated that on average, we lose 20 veterans per day to suicide. Let us not only think of them on this day, but every day.
Yes the virus is totally out of control right now and the hospital in GR are running out of space, people are dying and they are limiting visitors and other procedures! Other than that is is going great!
Not sure if I can find any information on it but several times in the past a strong SW wind has blown large amounts of water out of Saginaw Bay. I know one year and I can not remember when it was but a large ship was grounded in the Saginaw river.
Slim
Currently 37* degrees out at thee YARDofBRICKS feels cold outside from shorts to dirty heavy sweaty hoodies who knew?? Ohhh stinky to lol….INDY
A year ago today, GR got 6″ of snow with even more towards Lansing and Detroit. What a difference a year makes!
Happy Veterans Day! It is another great day in America! Proud to be and American! Thank God!
We are +11.6 degrees above average for November! That means the rest of the month would have to be -6 degrees below average in order to just get back to average (not happening).
The most recent CPC outlooks have SW Michigan above average up to Thanksgiving. Hopefully things get colder in December.
Thank You Veterans. Our child told Grandpa Thank You for your service. We have instilled the importance of all of our Veterans. Kiddo can’t wait to send some messages to family & friends today. Thanks to the families that are here while their loved one serves.
Great Scotty had turn the furney back on get the chill out of the house such a fantastic sound! The old furnace just spoke up and said gee all warm air gone again yup!! Lol …INDY
34* degrees feels refreshing outside this morning!! Wow what a cold a front..Happy Veterans Day thank you for the great services past and present!! Have a super normal or back to normal November day ….INDYCOLD
Had 0.69” of rain last night but not much wind. There was about a minute or two with some gusts around 35 or 40, but that was it. Nice lightening show though. Lightening in the Fall means no snow at all!
This has been a very remarkable first 10 days of November 2020. Here at Grand Rapids the mean for the first 10 days was 55.7° There were a total of 6 days with highs in the 70’s with 5 days in a row. Both are new records for the month of November. The high for the month will be a reading of 77 and that ties for the 2nd warmest reading ever in the month. The low so far has been 27 and there was 0.2″ of snow fall on the 1st that fell during the day after a cold front came thru. Here at my house I recorded 0.92″ of rain fall with some lightning but not really much wind yesterday evening. At this time it is cloudy and 40 both here at my house and at the airport.
Slim
That was a remarkable stretch! Kind of reminded me of the stretch in March of 2012 with all the records being broken and the huge departures from average. Might make a good post sometime comparing the two. Hardly ever do you have multiple days in a row with 20 to 30 degree departures from average.