We have another nice day in store with temperatures around 80° and sunny skies. Cooler weather will move in for the Friday through Sunday period with highs on Saturday only reaching the upper 60s to lower 70s. Isolated rain showers will be possible this weekend as well. Yesterday we recorded 81° for the high and 57° for the low temperature.
Weather History
1894: Only four days after record cool weather in the 30s and 40s, the thermometer soars to record highs of 96 at Grand Rapids and 99 at Lansing.
1939: A tornado outbreak across central and southern Lower Michigan resulted in two deaths and about 100 injuries. A violent tornado moved across the southeast part of Kalamazoo, destroying dozens of homes and killing two people. More homes were destroyed and six people were injured in northern Kent County, northeast of Cedar Springs.
1973: A tornado injures five people and damages eight houses in Carson City, Montcalm County.
1977: A tornado destroys a barn and trailer north of Marion in Osceola County.
On August 8, 2001, temperatures soared into the upper 90s. This was the fifth day of a six-day heat wave with temperatures in the 90s. Highs reached 99 degrees in Detroit and Saginaw, and 98 in Flint, all of which are records for the date.
Also on August 8, 1984, three tornadoes were reported around Genesee County at 2:08 pm, 2:15 pm and 2:20 pm. The tornados ranged from F1 through F3 and caused between $25,000 and $2,500,000 in damages.
NWS Forecast
Forecast Discussion
- Isolated Showers Possible Tonight The influence of surface ridging will be felt across the area over the next few days. Highs will reach near 80 today and the mid to upper 70s Friday. Slightly better moisture arrives with a brief shift to southerly flow supporting daytime stratocu developmemt, especially across the southeastern CWA. The only feature of note to impact the area is a mostly dry cold front crossing the area late today and tonight. Better cloud cover is expected given the mid- level moisture plume, and isolated rain showers are possible for the lakeshore counties near and north of Grand Haven. The increased moisture is pushed out by the front for Friday. Delta Ts of 15C or so will support lake effect cloud cover, especially near and west of US131. An isolated shower can`t be ruled out but given weaker low- level moisture and very limited potential coverage at best won`t include PoPs at this point. - Cool Weekend then Warming Back to Normal Next Week The GFS has the +4C isotherm at 850mb into the GRR CWA Saturday morning. That is quite cold by August standards. NAM Mos guidance has a low Saturday morning of 48 degrees in Cadillac just north of our CWA. Lows will be in the 50s across the GRR CWA Saturday morning. This weekend...lows in the 50s and highs in the upper 60s to lower 70s will make it feel a bit more like late September than early August. We see a moderating trend into next week with high temperatures rebounding to around 80 for highs which is near normal. - Small Chances for Rain Showers Remain Over Weekend Our model blends continue to given us limited cloud cover and almost zero chances for precipitation. We do see a lack of deep moisture in the models, but we feel this is likely underdone given the depth of the trough, the cold air aloft and August sunshine into that airmass. In addition, delta T`s over Lake Michigan will be in the middle to upper teens C. GFS MUCAPE values over Lake Michigan at 12Z Sunday reach 1,200 j/kg. That is significant CAPE generated by lake processes. Cannot imagine we won`t see at least some isolated to scattered showers. We will add some clouds and a few showers to the mix, but the weekend will continue to need to be watched for trends in moisture and precip. Into next week the moderating trend should knock the clouds and showers out and result in mostly clear to partly cloudy skies as high pressure dominates the area weather.
Here is a fun fact. The forecast is high in the upper 60’s for Saturday. If that is correct it will be one of the coldest high for any August 10th since 1892 there have only been 5 years when it did not reach 70 or better on August 10th at Grand Rapids.
Slim
That is remarkable. We’re in the midst of a beautiful stretch of weather right now. 80 here with low humidity and a light breeze. My kind of weather.
The official H/L yesterday was 78/56 there was no rainfall the highest wind gust was 26 MPH out of the E there was 98% of possible sunshine. For today the average H/L is 82/62 the record high of 96 was set in 1894 the coldest high of 65 was set in 1972 the record low of 43 was set in 1989 the warmest low of 76 was set in 1900.The most rainfall of 1.57” fell in 1991. The overnight low here in MBY was 58 and that is the current temperature with mostly clear skies.
Slim