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Rain Today – The Michigan Weather Center
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Rain Today

We have some drizzle this morning passing through Otsego with a temp of 49°.  Most of the rain today will fall mainly south of Grand Rapids with the greater amounts in SE Michigan.  Rainfall amounts of a tenth to a quarter-inch will fall in Grand Rapids and a quarter to a half in Kalamazoo.  Of course, as usual, these are guesses and this past month the guesses seem to have erred on the high side.  This should all clear out by tonight and temps will drop into the mid to upper 30s.

I am still waiting for enough rain to push the fertilizer on my lawn down far enough to kill the roots on the weeds – we have a nice crop of dandelions in the yard that shouldn’t be there.  I generally don’t have many because I usually get the fertilizer down in early to mid-April and we generally have sufficient rain to work it down into the soil.

This is another reason to take short-range forecasts with a grain of salt.  It is hard to forecast system precipitation more than a day out.


Forecast Discussion

-- Light showers today --

Regional radar shows that we are just missing out on beneficial
rain. A large band of showers and storms extends from the southern
Plains northeast across Indiana, just nosing into far southern
Lower. This is associated with low pressure moving over the northern
Ohio Valley.  Short range models suggest that some light rain will
develop a little farther north and perhaps clip the southern CWA
south of I-96. There are hints of that now in the latest composite
radar profile.

-- Frost Friday night, then warmer --

Colder air will flow into the CWA behind the departing low today. A
look at h8 temps shows we`ll be cold advecting by mid morning today;
temperatures will only top out around 60 today. Friday will be
colder as h8 temps fall to -2c resulting in sfc temps in the lower
to mid 50s. Frost is likely Friday night as the temperature falls to
around freezing.

Temperatures will rebound significantly over the weekend with upper
60s/lower 70s Saturday and mid 70s expected Sunday.

-- Showers Monday --

Monday looks like the best chance for rain. Low pressure will move
along a warm front across Lower Michigan beginning Sunday night and
continuing through Monday. We may see some thunder Sunday night but
instability wanes quite a bit by Monday and so just showers are
expected.
newest oldest
Mark (East Lansing)
Mark (East Lansing)

Local news said they received a quarter inch of rain today. It was nice, but much more was/is needed.

Andy W
Andy W

Wow!!! I think I may go out and hit 9 holes tonight!! Gorgeous out!!

Barry in Zeeland
Barry in Zeeland

Received all of 5 one hundredths of an inch of rain, and now the suns out and temps back to 60 degrees. Seems to be as hard to get any rain as it was hard to get any snow the past couple Winters. At least the lake levels are dropping rapidly now. Looks like a perfect evening for our first recreation league softball game tonight. Last year we never got to play because of the whole Covid debacle.

INDY
INDY

Hey mookie still waiting on them 80’s in April I want to put seed down thank you …INDY

Rocky (Rockford)
Rocky (Rockford)

Yes, no 80’s are in sight and hardly any 70’s for that matter! We are entrenched in a cooler pattern, despite the warm weather propaganda! Incredible!

Andy W
Andy W

This is just another horrendous skiing and snowshoeing day!

Slim

The rain has ended here and I recorded 0.04″ of rain fall. It looks like there was more rain at the airport as they have reported at least 0.9″ of rain. The last temperature reading at GRR was 51 with light rain falling and here at my house it is now 55 and cloudy.
Slim

Rocky (Rockford)
Rocky (Rockford)

Get prepared now! Wind chills in the 30’s both Friday and Saturday morning! ANDY you want an early tee on Saturday to enjoy these wind chills or the 30 mph wind gusts later that day! Incredible May cold!

Andy W
Andy W

Nope, I’ll be waiting til Sunday when it’s 75 degrees! And bonus, I’ll get a tee time at a course 10 minutes from me! I don’t have to drive 4 hours to find a golf course!

Barry in Zeeland
Barry in Zeeland

Hey, we’re getting some light sprinkles! The ground is almost wet but not quite.

Mark (East Lansing)
Mark (East Lansing)

Hallelujah, we are getting rain! And not just some measly sprinkle but a legit shower. My lawn is rejoicing.

INDY
INDY

Temps in the 50″s with wind nice Spring day on tap lol….May can’t get here fast enough …INDY

Rocky (Rockford)
Rocky (Rockford)

Yes another horrendous golf day! Get ready for some cold nights!

Bernie (Hamilton)
Bernie (Hamilton)

anyone know why a raingauge beaker would have measurement increment marks (in inches) that are not accurate when compared to a ruler? fyi…The beaker is not graduated. ie… 1 inch in the beaker is equivalent to about 1.4 inches on a ruler. It is a Lacrosse gauge.

Slim

I have not found a good answer to your question but here is a experiment you can do to see if there is any difference and that is make your own gauge and compare the difference.
https://www.sciencekids.co.nz/projects/raingauge.html
If you do this lets us know how it turns out.
Slim

Bernie (Hamilton)
Bernie (Hamilton)

I could not get that link to open up (tried it on 2 browsers)…

Slim
Slim

that seems to work
Slim

Mark (East Lansing)
Mark (East Lansing)

I’m sure there is some scientific reason, but I have not been able to find the answer to your question. This is interesting but again, it does not explain WHY they decided on those dimensions:

The standard United States National Weather Service rain gauge, developed at the start of the 20th century, consists of an 8-inch diameter (203 mm) funnel emptying into a graduated cylinder, 1.17 inches (29.7 mm) in diameter, which fits inside a larger container that is 8 inches in diameter and 20 inches (508 mm) tall.

Slim

You are right there must be some scientific reason. The link that did not work and the one that dose do not seem to be all that scientific that is why I would do a comparison to see how well it works. I would think that it home made one would be off but I am not sure. This is one description of what 1″ of rain fall is. ” Rainfall amount is described as the depth of water reaching the ground, typically in inches or millimeters (25 mm equals one inch). An inch of rain is exactly that, water… Read more »

Barry in Zeeland
Barry in Zeeland

I keep reading the promise of rain in all the different forecasts, but once again skunked overnight. Not a drop. The clay ground in our area is now just solid cement.

Slim

It has just started raining here.
Slim