Yesterday our high temp was 78° and the low was 52° with mostly sunny skies. We expect more sun today with warmer temps with a few afternoon thunderstorms developing mainly near and northeast of Mount Pleasant. Increased coverage in the showers and thunderstorms is possible Thursday as a wave of low-pressure tracks into the Great Lakes Region.
Sunrise is 7:00 am and sunset is 8:33 pm today. As of Tuesday, the sunrise was exactly 54 minutes later than it occurs at solstice and the sunset is exactly 54 minutes earlier.
Weather History for SW Michigan
August 21
1958: Heavy rains fall for the second day in a row, causing some flooding in the Grand Rapids area where the two-day rain total from August 20-21 was over 4 inches.
1975: A tornado blew down fruit trees in an orchard at Climax, in Kalamazoo County.
2003: A tornado with top winds of around 120 mph strikes eastern Ingham County injuring two people and destroying two homes. The damage path was 4 and a half miles long and up to one half mile wide.
August 22
1936: The Dust Bowl summer of 1936 produced more record heat, with a high of 98 degrees at Grand Rapids and 94 at Lansing.
1964: Tornadoes struck in Calhoun, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties. Three people were injured northeast of Battle Creek as a house and factory were damaged.
1966: A tornado struck Bellevue in Eaton County, damaging a house, garage and two cars.
2001: Severe weather and flooding hit Allegan, Ottawa and Kent Counties. Damaging winds hit Hudsonville, Plainwell, Dorr and Grand Rapids. Flooding occurred in eastern Van Buren and Kalamazoo Counties where three to five inches of rain is estimated to have fallen in less than 6 hours. Several streets were closed by flooding in Oshtemo flooded. Some businesses had to pump water out of their stores in Kalamazoo during the height of the storms.
August 23
2002: Several inches of rain in less than three hours caused flash flooding in Kalamazoo, where two homes and two businesses sustained extensive damage. Waldo Stadium, on the campus of Western Michigan University, also had major flooding. At one point, three feet of standing water covered the entire football field. The flooding caused an estimated 200,000 dollars in damage.
2007: Severe weather strikes Lower Michigan with large hail and damaging winds. Some of the worst damage is across Montcalm County where thousands of trees are downed by a tornado and downburst combination that produced estimated wind speeds up to 100 mph.
August 24
1947: The second long heat wave of the month comes to a close with record highs of 98 degrees at Grand Rapids and 96 degrees at Muskegon, contributing to the warmest August on record across West Michigan.
2006: Up to baseball-sized hail fell from a severe storm at Grand Junction in Van Buren County.
2007: Tornadoes strike Lower Michigan, with the worst damage near Potterville in Eaton County. Five people are injured and 15 homes are destroyed by a tornado with peak winds estimated at 140 mph. A weaker tornado hit southeast of Lansing but the damage was limited to trees falling on mobile homes.
August 25
1910: A tornado injured four people near Scottville in Mason County. The tornado destroyed a cement block building, hurling the roof a half mile. Several other buildings were unroofed.
1940: A stalled cold front brings clouds and very cool high temperatures. At Muskegon, the high was only 56 degrees and Lansing was 57, both records for the coldest maximum temperatures for the month of August. The high of 60 degrees at Grand Rapids is only one degree higher than the record of 59 degrees set on August 26, 1987.
2004: A strong downburst tore the roof off a section of the Maple Valley High School in Eaton County. The same storm produced a weak tornado minutes later that took the tin roof off a house in Vermontville.
August 26
2000: Heavy rain and high winds produce scattered damage and some flooding. The roof of a bowling alley near Jackson was damaged by an apparent microburst. Roads were closed due to flooding across southern Kalamazoo County.
August 27
1948: A late-season heat wave with eight straight days in the 90s at Grand Rapids is underway. Record highs are set at Lansing with 98 degrees, Grand Rapids with 95 and Muskegon with 91.
1977: Only two days after setting a record low of 43 degrees, the low temperature at Muskegon is a balmy 74 degrees, a record warm low temperature for the date.
2004: A weak tornado struck near Sherman City in Isabella County. A mobile home was slightly damaged but no one was injured.
Weather History for SE Michigan
August 21
On August 21, 2003, temperatures soared into the 90s as a cold front passed through southeast Michigan during the evening hours. Thunderstorms developed just after 6 PM EDT over Saginaw Bay and continued to develop to the southwest. This was a major severe event with hail up to the size of golf balls in Huron and Genesee Counties and wind damage from Monroe and Washtenaw Counties to Lapeer and Sanilac Counties. There was also one tornado that moved into far western Livingston County from Webberville in Ingham county.
Also on August 21, 1975, an F0 tornado developed from a severe thunderstorm passing through Wayne County causing $3,000 in damages.
August 22
On August 22, 1964, an F3 tornado hit Lenawee County at 2:35 PM around the community of Springville. Two people were injured as a result of this tornado. This was the last F3 or greater tornado to hit Lenawee.
August 23
On August 23, 2007, the event began with a thunderstorm in Midland County that moved east across the Thumb. This storm produced some large hail and the first tornado of 2007 near Argyle in northwestern Sanilac County. At the same time, this was occurring, a very fast-moving squall line approached the lower half of Southeast Lower Michigan. Although the squall line became less organized, it still produced numerous reports of wind damage between M-59 and Interstate 94.
Also on August 23, 1998, Clio reported 1-inch hail that came with a severe thunderstorm at 6:50 pm.
August 24
On August 24, 2011, scattered severe thunderstorms developed over Metro Detroit, with both large hail and wind damage occurring. There were over 20 reports of severe weather including golf ball-sized hail in Marysville.
On August 24, 2007, a tornado and severe weather outbreak hit the greater Flint and Detroit metro areas. The strongest tornado was an EF2 that was on the ground for 26 miles from northern Livingston County, through Fenton and into Holly. Additional tornadoes hit northeast of Durand (EF0), near Hadley (EF1), and near Salem (EF0).
Also on August 24, 1947, the temperature soared to 101 degrees in Flint, which is the record high temperature for the month of August in the city of Flint!
August 25
On August 25, 1948, a record high of 98 degrees occurred in Detroit. Also, records of 95 degrees on the 24th and 98 degrees on the 27th were reached during this short hot spell.
August 26
On August 26, 1970, 1-inch hail was reported at 5:15 pm from severe thunderstorms passing through Saginaw county. Also, in 1986, thunderstorms produced wind gusts of 64 mph in Genesee county.
August 27
On August 27, 1965, thunderstorms in Wayne county brought winds of 73 mph at 7:00 pm.
Forecast Discussion
-- Today -- Morning fog concentrated more so in lakeshore counties will mix out quickly after sunrise. Another mostly sunny day is expected with temperatures a couple degrees warmer than yesterday. Models are signaling about 500 J/kg of surface CAPE with limited inhibition around Clare/Mount Pleasant this afternoon, where confluence and moisture pooling will be occurring. Towering cumulus clouds may eventually build high enough for showers and perhaps a thunderstorm in that area. Vertical shear is weak, no more than 10 knots, so showers will tend to pulse up and down, and severe weather is not expected. -- Thursday -- Vorticity around 500 mb seen on satellite swirling over southeast Saskatchewan yesterday will move through Minnesota today and induce surface low development, which is set to pass through our area on Thursday. This shortwave will be propagating through a digging synoptic trough over Ontario that is sending a cold front southward into the Great Lakes region. Forecast soundings show CAPE to be pretty thin but adequate for scattered thunderstorms. Effective layer shear will again be fairly low, so severe weather is unlikely. Where better convective cells occur, the depth of moisture through the ambient atmosphere looks sufficient for some heavier downpours, making isolated rainfall totals around a half inch to one inch possible. -- Friday into Next Week -- Relatively cooler temperatures are expected on Friday, and high pressure will be in control going into the weekend. High temperatures should rebound on Sunday as warm air advection increases on the backside of the high. A shortwave trough or two moving through late Sunday through Monday would support another chance of showers and thunderstorms. Ensembles point to more instability being available with this round, and possibly a bit more shear, but the exact timing details are not settled enough to draw conclusions about severe weather potential.
Still no heat waves in sight! Rock n roll baby!
It is a beautiful summer day outside! A great day to sit in the sun with some ice tea.
I’m sitting outside for a break and the sun still feels very strong. It does feel a bit humid out too
Like a broken record yesterday was yet another very nice late summer day with a official H/L of 82/60 at Grand Rapids. There was no rain fall and the sun was out 84% of the time. The overnight low here in MBY was 60 and it looks like the official overnight low at GRR was 61. At the current time it is 62 here with clear skies. For today the average H/L is now down to 80/60 The record high of 98 was set in 1947 and 1948 the record low of 40 was set in 1942 and again in… Read more »