Humidity Moves Out

More comfortable air will be moving into place today.  We had .31 of an inch of rain from the northern edge of the storms yesterday early morning.  This brings us to 2.69 inches for the month and 8.69 inches for the summer thus far.

Weather History

2006: A widespread severe weather outbreak struck West Michigan. Dozens of trees were downed by winds gusting between 60 and 70 mph. A falling tree injured a camper at a campground in Dorr, Allegan County. Two-inch diameter hail fell at Marne in Ottawa County.

2009: The high of 67 degrees at Grand Rapids is a record cool high temperature for the date, and contributes to July 2009 becoming the coolest July on record. The highest temperature for the entire month is only 84 degrees, the lowest monthly maximum temperature for any July on record.

1994: A small, short-lived tornado was observed lifting small debris at the Clare County airport north of Harrison.

On July 17, 2012, the afternoon high temperature soared to 102 degrees, reaching 100+ degrees in Detroit for the third time that month. Highs also reached 101 in Flint and 100 degrees in Saginaw. All either tied or broke the existing record for the date.

On July 17, 1931, the temperature reached a record high of 100 degrees in Saginaw. Saginaw also had record highs of 98 degrees on the 15th and 16th.

Also on July 17, 2006, a squall line moved across Southeast Michigan hitting the Tri-Cities and Thumb regions the hardest. Severe weather was reported in all seventeen counties of Southeast Lower Michigan. Most of the damage was from severe winds, but there were a few reports of hail up to golf ball size in Saginaw. Winds were estimated up to 100 mph in eastern Huron County as hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. One person died, and one person was injured from lightning in Detroit.

NWS Forecast

Forecast Discussion

- Isolated showers and storms today

A mid to upper level disturbance moving in from the nnw will
combine with weak instability from daytime heating and pool of
cooler air aloft to bring potential for isolated storms. The
relatively best chc for an isolated shower or storm will be over
our ne fcst area this aftn where stronger mid to upper level pva
will develop. However even there coverage of any pcpn will be
rather limited given weak instability and an increasingly drier
airmass with nw winds.

- Fair weather and below normal temps Thursday

The high pressure ridge will build overhead Thursday and bring
mostly sunny skies with seasonably cool temps in the lower to
middle 70s and mins mainly in the 50s.

- Dry pattern continues into next week

Stretch of dry/pleasant weather continues through the weekend with
comfortable temperatures and humidities. While some weak troughing
will exist aloft, the sfc pattern has a large area of high pressure
overhead. Highs near 80 and lows in the 50s with partly cloudy skies
will be the rule and can`t rule out the possibility of some late-
night/early morning shallow fog patches given the light wind regime
under the sfc high.

While an isolated shower or storm is possible mainly inland from Lk
MI Sunday through Tuesday, our next decent chance of rain does not
really emerge until the middle or late part of next week when the
troughing aloft becomes a bit more pronounced and somewhat higher
PWATs return. Even this is far from a sure thing though given
general lack of deep layer shear and limited potential for organized
systems.  Many locations may not see any appreciable rainfall for
over a week which is more typical for late July and in contrast to
the active/rainy pattern we`ve seen recently.