Summers Respite

The feature image is some storm clouds just north of South Haven yesterday taken from the GRERL webcam.

Not a whole lot of rain yesterday or overnight – areas around Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo saw a quarter inch or less – we had trace amounts in the Otsego/Plainwell area.  Trace amounst mean less than .01 (a hundredth of an inch).  Rain gauges both digital and analog measure rain by the hundredth.

I would like to see more official rain gauges report to CoCoRaHS especially in Allegan, Kalamazoo and Barry Counties.  There is a big hole in central Allegan county (13 stations mainly on the east and west sides of the county) and only four in Barry county.  Kalamazoo County has only six stations while Kent county has over 30.  Info on the official rain gauge can be found here and the purchasing info at Weather Your Way.

CoCoRaHS is an acronym for the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network. CoCoRaHS is a unique, non-profit, community-based network of volunteers of all ages and backgrounds working together to measure and map precipitation (rain, hail and snow). By using low-cost measurement tools, stressing training and education, and utilizing an interactive Web-site, the aim is to provide the highest quality data for natural resource, education and research applications.  The sign up page is here.  They don’t allow the use of digital gauges so you have to purchase the official analog gauge.

We will see cloudy conditions south of Grand Rapids most of the day as the cold front has stalled over the area – drier cooler air will filter in behind the front as we settle into a more early fall like pattern through the rest of the week.

Gordon is moving northward and at this time the main area of rain should stay south of Michigan we will have to keep an eye on this.  Hurricane Florence is heading towards Bermuda and is expected to become a major hurricane.  In the eastern Pacific we have hurricane Olivia which is heading towards Hawaii.  We are definitely getting more activity in the Atlantic.