We have a relatively balmy 52° this morning at 4:30 am. With the rain overnight, we picked up another .36 of an inch which brings our total for the month to 2.31 inches and 5.48 inches since the first of September.
Our unsettled pattern will continue into the end of the week. One change will be the temperatures. Above normal temperatures are expected for Thursday into Friday with a run to close to 70° dependant on how much sun peeks out. I suspect we may stop in the upper 60s which isn’t bad for this time of year. A stronger cold front pushes through Friday so a cool down is expected for the weekend with temps in the upper 40s. Our cooler than normal temps will persist into the first week of November.
Weather History
October 18
1834: One of the first recorded tornadoes in Michigan strikes Kalamazoo, damaging several homes and businesses.
1972: It is an early taste of winter as a snowstorm hits Lower Michigan. The storm drops 4.6 inches of snow at Muskegon, the heaviest snow on record for so early in the season there.
1976: A cold snap drops the temperature at Grand Rapids to 19 degrees for an early season record.
2007: A tornado with top winds estimated at about 130 mph strikes Williamston in Ingham County. Two people are killed when their mobile home is demolished. Several other homes are heavily damaged.
October 19
1989: Four to five inches of snow falls across Lower Michigan as a record early season snowfall causes power outages and travel delays.
October 20
1992: One to three inches of snow blankets southwest Lower Michigan at the culmination of three days of wintry weather with lows around 30 degrees and highs in the lower 40s.
October 21
1974: It is one of the coldest mornings on record in western Lower Michigan with temperatures falling into the teens. Grand Rapids falls to 18 degrees, the lowest October temperature on record.
October 22
1953: An extended October warm spell culminates with record highs around 80 degrees. At Grand Rapids, it is the third consecutive day with record high temperatures.
October 23
1955: A cold front moving into warm and humid air results in severe thunderstorms across southwest Lower Michigan. High winds and hail caused considerable damage to windows, roofs, automobiles and trees as a severe storm passed about 15 miles south of Grand Rapids.
1959: A tornado struck near Evart in Osceola County around 4 PM, with only minor tree damage.
1963: Michigan is in the midst of a spell of record warm weather. Lansing reaches 80 degrees or higher on five consecutive days from the 22nd to the 26th.
October 24
1967: A tornado injures four people as it destroys a trailer in Monterey Township, Allegan County.
2001: A squall line moves across southern Lower Michigan producing widespread wind damage and several tornadoes. The town of Schoolcraft in Kalamazoo County is hit by winds estimated up to 100 mph, causing extensive tree damage and some structural damage. The town of Marshall in Calhoun County also sustains some damage to homes as winds gust between 60 and 80 mph.
Your Local Forecast
#HurrySpring2021
Well it’s about 12:50 AM Wednesday morning and it is pouring outside. Hoping it lets up soon.
I just saw a Christmas television commercial. No joke. It was for overstock.com.
Ridiculous. So another couple weeks they will be putting out the Easter commercials?
Any notion about west mi having a warm rainy winter is pure garbage! La nino will give us plenty of snow and near to belownormal temps! Mark it down and get ready to rock!
Let’s keep the below average temps going into November baby. ..Let it snow let it snow let snow …INDY
Mark Torregrossa is giving our Slim a run for his money:
https://www.mlive.com/weather/2020/10/michigans-worst-winters-see-them-ranked-by-snow-extreme-cold.html
I would agree with that write up. The Winters we have now are absolutely nothing compared to what we had back in the late ‘70s.
Since 1970 I would agree with Mark’s assessment. In the years 1950 to 1970 you can add the winter of 1958/59 as one of the coldest with a December to February mean of 19.5 at GRR and for snow fall the winter of 1951/52 with 132.0″ of snow has to come into play but remember 78.2″ fell in November and December. and in January of 1951 the low dropped down to -22 at GRR.
Slim
Mark Toragrossa usually is spot on plus he’s a Michigan boy not one of these forecasters that try to predict our weather and don’t have anything to do with the state of Michigan or live here Marks been absolutely right on with our below normal average September and October and says our Winter will start before Christmas this year I haft to agree with him..INDY
Agreed. I enjoy reading Torregrossa‘s articles.
Bring on the cold front for this weekend and then the snowstorms!
Currently 47* degrees and spits of rain out at thee YARDofBRICKS NE of a nother perfect Fall day soon the spits of rain will be snow!! Have a good Wednesday INDY …
This is a repeat of the post I put up yesterday for one of the long range guess. Brett Anderson came out with his 2020/21 winter guess. While his guess is for Canada for those of us living in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and the Dakotas there is enough of a over lap that his guess get into our area. His guess is pointing towards a warm winter with less snow for much of our area. Here is his summery for the winter season. “Overall, in terms of temperatures, the core of the Arctic air is expected to hang out across… Read more »
Another repeat of last year with little snow, little to no lake effect, and mild. Sounds perfect!
I recorded 0.43″ of rain over night here. At this time it is cloudy and 49.
Slim
Sheesh, heavy rain and lots of thunder overnight. Like I said previously, we can get just about any type of weather in October.
If there was any thunder here NW of GR I must have slept thru it.
Slim
We had some thunder and heavy rain. One flash of lightning was super bright and the thunder that followed was something. Lol