Green & Gray – Weather History

I stayed up until 10pm last night watching the polls – by that time I had a good idea how things would turn out.  The polls were busy as this was a record turnout for midterm elections.  My wife and I vote in Otsego Township, we went at noon – it was busy but we still got in and out within 15 minutes.  I talked to one of the officials and they couldn’t believe the amount of people they processed.  They ran out of “I Voted” stickers before noon.

Most of the country had a large turnout.  I am thinking Michigan’s big numbers at the polls had to do with Proposal One.  At this time with 93% of the votes in it has passed by 56 to 44%..  Michigan is the tenth state to legalize marijuana and the new law will take effect in about a month.  Keep in mind it is still illegal on the federal level so don’t take it out of state.  I am wondering how companies with zero tolerance drug enforcement are going to deal with this.

I was raised in the hippie generation and grew my own back in the day.  I haven’t consumed any in the past thirty years and I am thinking this will change as I have been taking strong legal prescription opioid pain killers for the past five years for my various ailments and have wanted to get off them and use pot in their place.  The company I worked for had zero tolerance for illegal drugs even if one had a marijuana card.  Now that I am retired I can look into the ‘pot’ option and can grow my own again.  Yup, now you know more about me – I was a wild child of the 70s but was tamed by the need to raise children and keep a job to support a healthy home.  I just hope parents will keep this stuff away from their kids and not smoke it in front of them.

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Weather History

November 4

2003: Heavy rains of an inch or more across southwest Lower Michigan on this day set the tone for November, 2003. This turns out to be the wettest November on record at both Grand Rapids and Lansing.

November 5

1951: The temperature plunges to six degrees at Grand Rapids, a record for early season cold.

1990: Heavy rains inundate southern Lower Michigan. The 2.12 inches of rain at Muskegon makes this the wettest November day on record.

November 6

1880: An early season snowstorm strikes during one of the coldest Novembers on record in Lower Michigan. At Lansing, a foot of snow is measured on this day.

1951: Snow and cold dominate the month of November across western Lower Michigan, especially the first week. The morning low of 12 degrees at Muskegon is the fifth consecutive daily record low temperature. Lake effect snow continues piling up at a record pace with more than two feet of snow falling at Grand Rapids in the first week of November.

1975: Record warm weather prevails across Michigan with Grand Rapids and Lansing both reaching 77 degrees.

November 7

1877: Record cold freezes Lower Michigan following a heavy snowfall on November 5th. At Lansing the temperature plunges to 4 degrees on the 5th and 6th, and 8 degrees on this day.

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.

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We received .65 of an inch of rain yesterday in Otsego making for a wet day for voters who had to stand out in the elements.  Below is the CoCoRaHS precipitation map for yesterday.

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Light snow is possible north of U.S. 10 today.  We have more chances of snow tomorrow through next Tuesday especially along the lakeshore counties as the lake effect machine revs up.  So it may be time to dust of the snow shovels.  Thursday and Friday may bring us a couple inches of the white stuff.  Temps will remain in the 30s during this time period.  Not much sun in the forecast so the skies will feature gray conditions through the rest of the week.

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