Thanks for the thoughts and prayers for the sudden passing of my brother last week at the age of 64. He was a well-known musician in West Michigan playing with Basic English in the 1980s and Mid-Life Crises after that. I was an acoustic guitar player and gave him his first electric guitar in the late 70s which he quickly took to and mastered. Music was Greg’s passion but he also loved animals. He was quick to care for any cat or dog in need. He also enjoyed camping with his wife and spending time with his family. RIP Bro…
Yesterday we had a high temperature of 58° in Otsego. Below are the high temperatures recorded around the area:
Forecast
Weather History for SW Michigan
1971: Record highs in the lower 60s are recorded across Lower Michigan as a southerly flow of warm moist air precedes a cold front. Record rains of around 2 inches fall as the cold front moves through.
2009: Near blizzard conditions develop as heavy snow combines with strong winds. From 12 to 16 inches of snow piles up across much of western Lower Michigan from December 9th to the 11th.
Weather History for SE Michigan
On December 10, 1876, the overnight temperature plummeted to -9 degrees in Detroit, 34 degrees below the average overnight temperature for that day.
U.S.A and Global Events for December 10th:
December 10, 1699:
A severe ice storm hit Boston, Massachusetts causing much damage to orchards.
December 10, 2002:
A shower of tiny fish rained down on Korona, a village in the mountains of northern Greece. A Greek television reported a waterspout caused the incident on Lake Doirani.
Forecast Discussion
Our main focus in the short term portion of the forecast is on the shower activity into this evening, some of which could produce some light accumulations on grassy areas. The trends have remained consistent in showing this should have little to no impact through tonight. What was once the parent low with this system is now opening up and rotating NE through the northern portion of the state. A few sprinkles/light showers are moving through the area early this morning. Moisture is not very deep, only around 7-8k ft agl, and the dgz is only partially saturated. The lake does not look to be helping much so far per radar trends, with delta t`s only around 10- 12C at this time. We will see the lake contribution increase through the morning and into the afternoon as 850 mb temperatures drop down to around -9 to -10C by this evening. This will increase delta t`s to the mid teens C, and will help in the production of lake effect showers. Sfc temps well into the 30s will help keep some rain mixed in at times until the sufficiently cold air arrives and changes all showers to snow. Even when the coldest of the air is here, and best over lake instability is present, we still do not expect much in the way of any accumulation. Even with a lake modified parcel with better instability, the top of the convective layer barely gets into the dgz. This will really limit snowflake generation and size, and thus accumulations. We believe that some of the most organized snow showers could drop a few tenths of an inch on grassy areas across the north and west. Ground temps are in the 30s after the recent warmer weather, and with solar radiation warming road sfcs, roads should be largely just wet until sunset. The snow showers are forecast to wind down later tonight. The long wave cyclonic flow aloft moves out, and we will lose the marginally cool air aloft that was here. It does look like we will keep lake effect cloud cover in through most of Monday as moisture gets trapped in. The dgz is pretty much unsaturated, so it should just mainly be clouds. An upper low moves through SE Canada Tuesday into Wednesday with troughing extending south into the central Great Lakes but forecast soundings are dry and the polar jet remains north of the area, so we will maintain the dry forecast through Thursday. Slight chance POPs on Friday and into the weekend are the result of an approaching clipper. Forecast soundings show little moisture to work with and the mean path of the sfc low remains north of the forecast area, so little if any QPF is expected.
Breaking News>>>>>The Lion s are NOT a great team, in fact they looked horrendous today against a bad Bears team! Pathetic showing = SOL = Same Old Lions! Incredible!
We have seen FANTASTIC December weather so far, great news, only 100 more days till the official start of spring!!!
We have seen horrible December weather so far, but great news, only 11 more days till the official start of winter!!!
Side note- yesterday was the earliest sunset of the year. We now gain light until the end of June in the evening!
Always a great time of the year! Everyone I know hates these early sunsets, and now they start getting pushed back. We’re already a quarter of the way to the Spring time change when it really jumps to later sunsets.
Am I the only one who wonders if the lack of snow so far could lead to either a big time lake effect snow event later in the season or a very impactful/crippling winter storm/blizzard that dumps a large amount of snow? Not saying it will happen but sort of eerie with how quite it has been
While we do not know how January and February or March/April will play out. But in the past at Grand Rapids the years that had little snow in November and December had very little snow fall for the winter season as a whole. So no I would not count on a major snow event this winter. I will do a report on this maybe this Saturday.
Slim
Interesting note from the NWS in Chicago:
“IT’S SIMPLY TOO HARD *NOT* TO TALK ABOUT THE SIGNAL FOR NO IMPACTFUL SNOW BETWEEN NOW AND LATE DECEMBER. OF THE 100
EPS/GEFS/CMCE MEMBERS FROM THE 12Z SUITE, ONLY 30 TO 40 SHOW >0.1″ OF A SNOW FOR CHICAGO, AND FEWER THAN 5 SHOW MORE THAN 2″, THROUGH DECEMBER 24TH AT BOTH CHICAGO O’HARE AND ROCKFORD. THERE ARE NO SIGNS OF AN IMPACTFUL WINTER STORM IN THE REGION ANYTIME SOON.”
We’re west of Chicago now, heading home this afternoon. The lack of snow and cold has been a topic in these parts.
MV- I looked up some videos of the band. Really talented. Pretty cool you got him into guitar
Pretty rare day yesterday with most places topping out 20 degrees above average. Be fine with me if this pattern keeps rolling along another month or two.
East Lansing had its winter festival yesterday. There were ice sculptors. That’s tough to do when it’s 60 degrees out.
The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 58/39. That 58 was reached at 11AM and it was the 2nd warmest ever at GR for any November 9th with the 59 in 1946 being the only warmer one. There was 0.04” of rain fall. There was no snow fall. The peak wind gust was 59MPH out of the SW. The sun was out 23% of the time. For today the average H/L is 38/26 the record high of 62 was set in 1971 and the record low of 5 was set in 1977. The wettest day was 2.13” in 1971. The most snow fall was 7.2” in 2009 The most snow on the ground was 9” in 1962 and 1958. Last year the H/L was 34/32 and there was 0.2” of snowfall.
Slim
As has been the trend this late fall/early winter season it has been mild with near or just above average temperatures and almost no snowfall. At the current time GR is on a pace that could give GR a record low snowfall total for December. The least snowfall for any December is 1” in 2014. Other very low snowfall totals for December are 2.3” in 1912 and 1913. 2.5” in 2015 2.6” 1979. We are setting for a possible very low seasonal snowfall total as well. Something to keep a eye on in the days ahead.
Slim
So sorry for your loss MV. I remember seeing Mid Life Crises back in the day.
Slim
I second that. My sincerest condolences, MV.