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Showers & Wind Advisory – Winter Stats 3/5

Posted on by MichaelV (Otsego)

We have had around half an inch of rain (or so), will get the official reading from the rain gauge later after the sun comes out.  We have 48° in Otsego at 6:30 this morning.  Yesterday’s high was 49° and the low was 36°.

We can expect rain and mild temperatures today, with a rumble of thunder possible. Tonight, some light snow will fall, and then it will be chilly on Thursday. A wind advisory will go into effect at 7 p.m. this evening.

Wind Advisory

...WIND ADVISORY IN EFFECT FROM 7 PM THIS EVENING TO 7 AM EST
THURSDAY...

* WHAT...Northwest winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 50 mph
  expected.

* WHERE...Allegan, Ottawa, Van Buren, Mason, Muskegon, and Oceana
  Counties.

* WHEN...From 7 PM this evening to 7 AM EST Thursday.

* IMPACTS...Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree
  limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result.
It’s March in Michigan: 50s today with rain showers and perhaps a rumble of thunder followed by 20s and snow showers tonight! Wind gusts to 30 mph from the south today will be followed by gusts of 40 to 50 mph out of the northwest tonight.
This past winter was generally cooler and drier than normal conditions, with snow driven by lake effect and clipper systems. Equipment outages mean that seasonal average temperature and precipitation are unavailable for Lansing and snow for Kalamazoo. We ended up with 67 inches in Otsego due to the lake effect.

Weather History

1948: Arctic high pressure dominates the first half of the month of March with record lows this morning of 8 below zero at Grand Rapids and 5 below at Muskegon.

1976: Thunderstorms move over cold air near the ground to produce one of the worst ice storms in history across Wisconsin and Lower Michigan. From 2 to 5 inches of ice builds up on trees and power lines, resulting in hundreds of thousands of people without power, some for as long as ten days.

On March 5, 1900, a two-day snowstorm ended which dropped a total of 16.1 inches of snow in Detroit. This is the third heaviest snowstorm in Detroit since 1880! The storm was the last storm in a series of remarkable snowstorms which saw the 7th heaviest snowstorm on February 19, 1900, and then the 4th heaviest snowstorm on February 28-March 1, 1900. The March 1st and March 5th snowstorms helped to make it the snowiest March on record in Detroit, with 30.2″ of snowfall for the month. This is 23.2″ above average!

Also on March 5, 1948, there was an all-time high pressure observed at Detroit of 31.04 inches.

Forecast Discussion

- Rain and isolated storms and breezy conditions today

A vigorous low pressure system will bring occasional rain and
breezy conditions today. There is also a slight chance for
convection mainly this afternoon as a result of abundant moisture,
lift, favorable mid to upper level dynamics as well as strong
kinematics and shear.

However weak sfc/elevated instability remains a significant
mitigating factor for convective initiation to occur. The
relatively best chc for isolated convection will be this afternoon
when daytime heating is maximized and particularly if there is
some partial sunshine. No hydro issues are expected given
antecedent conditions and additional rainfall amounts of mostly
less than an inch.

- Windy with snow showers tonight

Pcpn will transition to snow showers late this afternoon and
evening as strong north to nw flow caa occurs on the back side of
the robust low pressure system. Any snow accumulations will be
less than an inch with little if any impacts given how mild it
will be today. Wind gusts will reach advisory criteria tonight
near Lake Michigan where scattered power outages are possible. We
will therefore hoist a wind adv for all our lakeshore counties
from 00Z Thur - 12Z Thur.

- Snow showers possible south of I-96 Friday

A weakening low pressure system passing by to the south of our
region may bring some light snow showers to our far southern fcst
area Friday. An overall medium range guidance consensus blend
suggests the area near to south of I-94 is most favored for some
snow Friday with the relatively best chance for snow a little
further south near the MI/IN border. High temps Friday should
reach well into the 30s to near 40 degrees to minimal impacts from
this snow are expected.

- Significant moderating trend of temps next week

A consensus of latest ensemble and deterministic medium range
guidance continues to indicate a very significant moderating trend
of temps will occur next week. In fact high temps by Tue/Wed will
likely reach the low to perhaps middle 60s across the southern
half of our fcst area.
Category: Michigan Weather Forecast

36 thoughts on “Showers & Wind Advisory – Winter Stats 3/5”

    1. What? The warm weather crazies make it sound like it is an incredible feat!

  2. More facts directly from the NWS!

    SNOWFALL (IN)
    YESTERDAY 0.0 8.0 1900 0.4 -0.4 0.0
    MONTH TO DATE T 1.6 -1.6 0.0
    SINCE MAR 1 T 1.6 -1.6 0.0
    SINCE JUL 1 62.1 69.6 -7.5 40.3

  4. Winter must be ending, Rocky in full rapid fire troll posting mode now! All good we can all see what’s really happening outside our windows in Kent County, no snow, warmer temps and green grass. A day or two here and there of cold wind chills is fine with me, when overall the temps are climbing and climbing!

  5. 30 to 40 mph winds with wind chills near 10 degrees tomorrow! Get ready now! Mid winter conditions for tomorrow! Incredible!

  6. Let’s clarify this fact! The seasonal snowfall for GR is only 7.5 inches below normal, so only one big snowstorm away from being erased! Bring on a monster SNOWSTORM! Wouldn’t that be awesome?

    1. False. Observed 62.1 inches. Normal 70.0 inches. This comes out to a deficit of -7.9″ and growing.

  7. Three weeks ago, the snow piles at the end of my driveway were waist high. It’s all gone now. Getting some sunshine periodically here. It must be March. There is lightning in the lower peninsula.

  8. Get your winter gear out and ready to go! Wind chills in the teens and high temps below freezing! Yet the warm weather nuts are talking about temps in the 60’s! Incredible! Some things never change!

  10. “High temps by Tue/Wed will likely reach the low to perhaps middle 60s across the southern half of our fcst area.” NWS GR

    Eeeee Eeeee blowtorch alert!

  11. Interesting stats above for the Winter. Small snow events, no records, and almost a foot below average for snowfall. It was an easy Winter again, very little time spent shoveling and barely any time on the snowblower yet again. We did use more salt than normal to melt the ice around the restaurant because of the melting and refreezing , but once again just not that much snow to deal with in the parking lot.

    1. I still find Oct 20 to April 20 to be very chilly and dreary regardless if it was a warm or cold winter. But yes, for MI standards it was not overly snowy. Definitely one of the coldest winters since 2019 though

      1. Yes, Nathan no real nice sustained warm weather till May! Sometimes not till mid to late May! Who knew?

      2. That’s interesting because we hit 77 degrees on October 21, 2024 and then saw continued warmth for weeks. We hit back to back 79 degrees October 29th and October 30th. Last November was mainly warm golf weather as well.

  12. Great news – we might start to see some actual nice golf weather with courses in good playing conditions by May! Incredible!

    1. I marked down your snow map 10 days ago that showed GR getting almost a foot of snow by now. Whoops!

    1. Yes, winter is raging in the upper Midwest and blizzard warnings in MI! What a winter!

  16. lol!! Cold and snow for a day or two, then 50’s and 60’s!!! Cold weather lunatics are grasping at wind chills now! Such desperation!!!

  17. Cold and snow is in the forecast! Winter is hardly dead! These ridiculous comments happen every year and are always wrong! Wow!

  18. Get ready for wind chills in the teens with snow tomorrow! Cold, cold, cold! Already 20+ inches more snow this season vs last year at this point – what a winter! Incredible!

  19. We are now 8″ below average snowfall on the season and growing everyday. I love short winters!

  20. Woke up to almost 50 degrees! The cold weather nuts tried to tell me I was crazy when I said winter was dying weeks ago. It looks like a timely prediction. We haven’t seen any measurable snow in weeks and nothing but green grass and even warmer temps next week!

    1. Yes, it looks like a lot of Michigan golf courses will be opening next week! Wow!

  23. Daily Almanac the Official H/L yesterday at GRR was 50/35 there was 0.41” of rainfall, the highest wind gust was 30 MPH out of the SW. The sun was out 10% of the possible time. The seasonal snowfall remains at 62.1” that is a departure of -7.5” For today the average H/L is 40/24 the record high of 68 was in 1894, 1983 the coldest high of 16 was in 1920 the record low of -8 was in 1948 the warmest low of 50 was in 1894 the most rainfall of 0.82” was in 2008 the most snowfall of 7.4” was in 1999 the deepest snow depth was 19” in 2014.
    I recorded 0.53” of rainfall yesterday and overnight. The low here in MBY was 43 at the current time there is a light mist and a temperature of 47.
    Slim

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