Yesterday we had a cold drizzle in the morning and temps struggled to get to 43° after a morning low of 32.5°. Made me wonder if we were in Great Britain rather than Michigan. Today will not be significantly warmer than yesterday, highs will mostly be in the lower to mid-40s. Clouds should slowly break up this afternoon leading to mostly clear skies early this evening. It will continue to be cool with highs only in the lower to mid-40s. High pressure over Ontario will provide dryer air across the region through the first part of the weekend. Temperatures will also slowly warm into the 50s by Thursday and Friday and lower 60s by the weekend.
Weather History for SW Michigan
April 24
1980: Only two days after setting record highs in the 80s, a record snowfall blankets Lower Michigan. Grand Rapids sets a record for the date with 2.4 inches of snow, after hitting 86 degrees on the 22nd.
April 25
1976: Winter returns after summer-like weather the week before. After four days in the 80s from the 15th to the 18th, temperatures are held in the 30s today and heavy wet snow falls. Lansing sets a record for the date with 4 inches of snow, as does Grand Rapids with 3 inches.
April 26
1915: A record three-day spell of warm weather in the 80s peaks with a high of 88 degrees at Grand Rapids and Lansing.
April 27
1966: A cold rain falls across Lower Michigan, holding temperatures in the 30s. The high of 37 at Grand Rapids and 38 at Lansing are both record cold high temperatures for the date.
April 28
1964: A tornado destroyed a cottage and downed trees north of Newaygo.
1991: A restaurant was destroyed and a hardware store was unroofed as a tornado moved along the northwest edge of Hart in Oceana County.
April 29
1899: Grand Rapids sets the record high for the month of April at 90 degrees after a balmy morning low of 70 degrees.
1909: Heavy rain mixed with snow sets records across Lower Michigan. The daily total liquid-equivalent precipitation is 2.53 inches at Grand Rapids, and this includes a daily record of 2.2 inches of snow. The 1.75 inches at Lansing includes four inches of snow. Temperatures remain in the 30s all day.
April 30
1962: Several tornadoes struck southern Lower Michigan. A fire station was damaged in Lansing and a building was destroyed in Grand Ledge. Another tornado struck south of Ypsilanti destroying a barn and damaging two houses.
SE Michigan Weather History
April 24
On April 24, 2005, a 3-day snowstorm swept across Southeast Lower Michigan dropping 16.5 inches of snow on NE Clarkston. The thumb reported drifts of 3-4 feet of snow. The storm began on the 23rd and lasted through the 25th.
April 25
On April 25, 2009, A strong cold front pushed into Southeast Michigan during the afternoon hours, producing several severe thunderstorms, generally confined to the M-59 Corridor, where tree damage and power outages were most prevalent. Over 50 severe reports were recorded with most of those being wind damage and severe wind gusts as high as 70 m.p.h. There were 80,000 homes and businesses which lost power in Oakland county.
Also on April 25, 1990, the temperature rose to 87 degrees in Flint. This set the record for the high temperature in the month of April in Flint and was tied by the records set on April 16, 2002, and April 18, 2004.
April 26
On April 26, 2009, it was a sunny and very warm day with a record high of 86 set in Detroit.
April 27
On April 27, 1915, the temperature in Detroit never dropped below 65 degrees. The temperature never dropped below 65 degrees the day before (April 26) as well.
April 28
On April 28, 2011, heavy rain that started on April 27 continued across Southeast Michigan. All locations received over an inch of rain during the two days, but many locations in the Saginaw Valley and Thumb had over 3 inches. Several roads in the Thumb region were closed. This rainfall helped to make it the third wettest April in Saginaw, the fourth wettest in Detroit, and the fifth wettest in Flint. The wet April assisted in making the spring of 2011 the wettest in Flint history, the second wettest in Detroit, and the eleventh wettest in Saginaw.
Also on April 28, 1986, an F2 tornado hit Saginaw county at 2:33 pm which cost $2.5 million in damages.
April 29
A very impressive late-season rain/snowstorm hit Southeast Michigan late on April 28th – 29th in 1909. The very intense low-pressure system moved through the region bringing Detroit 1.99″ of rain along with 3.0″ of snow, sleet, and hail from thunderstorms. Easterly winds gusted up into the 40s mph much of the 29th and then late in the evening, a strong cold front brought a northwest wind gust to 54 mph. In Saginaw, they were buried under 13.0 inches of snow.
April 30
On April 30, 1962, 2 simultaneous F1 tornadoes hit Washtenaw County at 6:00 pm.
On a dry weather note, the date concluded one of the driest (4th) Aprils on record in 2004 when just 0.69″ of precipitation fell (0.70″ at Flint made April 2004 the second driest on record). One has to look back nearly a century to find a drier April (0.66″-1915) in Detroit.
-- Cold Temperatures Today and Tonight -- An approximately Michigan-sized pool of cold air below 850 mb is moving through the state this morning. This air of subarctic origin from central Canada a few days ago is pretty close but not quite as cold as it gets at 850 mb this late in the year, as evidenced by the APX and GRB sounding climatology since the late 1940s/early 1950s. At 00Z (Tuesday evening`s weather balloon flight), APX and GRB measured 850 mb temperatures below -10 C, which is slightly below the 7-day moving average of the daily minimums recorded in the datasets. The GFS and ECMWF suggest APX may briefly be in the heart of cold air at 12Z with 850 temps around -14 C, which is more impressive. All of this to say, despite clouds and surface wind/mixing this morning, temperatures range from the mid 20s in Cadillac and Houghton Lake to the lower 30s in southern portions of Michigan, pretty chilly for a non- radiational-cooling type of night in late April. There is a fairly sharp gradient in the 850 temperatures to the south and west of the core of coldest air in northern Michigan this morning, and the coldest air will be east of Michigan by this evening. With surface-to-850 mixing expected this afternoon, feel pretty confident we will avoid the record coldest high temperatures by several degrees. Wed night, with surface high pressure centered over northern Michigan, mostly clear skies and light winds should make for an even colder night, down into the mid or upper 20s for many locations. A temperature inversion above the surface should help make cold mitigation techniques more effective, if needed (fortunately susceptibility to cold temperatures is lessened by the delayed start of the growing season). -- Outlook -- There is good ensemble support for gradually warming temperatures each day through Saturday or Sunday, then solutions tend to diverge going into next week. High pressure and dry easterly low- level flow will be the dominant weather feature for our area going into the weekend while a slow-moving low develops in the Plains and occludes around the upper Mississippi river valley over the weekend. There is a hint of light precip in the ensembles with mid-level moisture and cloud cover Thu night / Fri morning and again on Saturday, though dry air in the lower levels may keep it as virga. Rain showers are more likely to move in Saturday night into Sunday. Later next week there are a couple more opportunities for rain, but predictability and confidence in exactly when and how much is rather low.
Currently 39 degrees outside in my area did we even make 40 degrees today ?? This may go down as the coldest cloudest April ever on record wow …INDY
We are stuck in a below normal temp pattern and no change is in sight! Will it even hit 70 degrees in the next 3 weeks! The first 1/3 of 2022 has been below normal and May is looking like another below normal temp month! Wow!
Sunny but still just 40 at 2:50 PM. A very cold late April day.
Slim
Incredible cold, but at least it is sunny! Could this be a record breaker? Lows tonight in the mid 20’s ,
4/27/22 at 12 noon and the wind chill is still in the 20’s! Wow, wow, wow! Nice golf day?
We shall not forget what happened 11 years ago today. We were in the middle of the Superoutbreak 2011. Today (April 27) was the most active day. 216 tornadoes touched down just on the 27th from Midnight to Midnight, 62 just in Alabama alone. 360 tornadoes for the entire super outbreak. 316 people died on the 27th with a death toll of 348 for the entire outbreak. My thoughts and prayers are with those that are still impacted by it to this day. I remember watching the live coverage on the weather channel. That was one event that sparked my… Read more »
That was a crazy day!
That was a crazy day and if I remember that year after that day we didn’t see a lot of Tornadoes the rest of Spring and Summer I think it was a below average season for Tornadoe across the great planes which probably was a good thing…INDY
The word of the day = COLD! Incredible!
April 27th and the current wind chill is 20 degrees! Dress for mid winter today! This is such an incredible cold spell for late April and for that matter all of 2022! Truly an incredible cold stretch! Wow, just wow!
Actually, we had snowfall in Lower Michigan on April 27th just a few years ago I recall. Not that unusual. I remember because it’s one of my good friend’s birthday.
Totally irrelevant comment!
Since 1893 at Grand Rapids there has been only 5 years with a reported snow on April 27th and only one year when more than a trace. Yesterdays trace was a tie for the record for the date. So while it has happened it is rather unusual for it to snow this late in April
Slim
Thanks for the FACTS! Funny how the facts always get in the way of the warm weather hype!
GR hit 45 yesterday which was warmer than a lot of the forecasts I saw in the upper 30’s and lower 40’s. Thank goodness!
Here comes another warmup!
The big warm up may actually get temps to just below normal vs well below normal! I love it when mookie calls just below normal temps a warm up! Wow, just wow!
What happened to your prediction of 70 degree temps! What a joke!
WOOD had that in their forecast yesterday. Don’t worry, it will change again.
Yesterday saw record snowfall amount and some of the coldest maximums for any April 26 in west Michigan. The official high at Grand Rapids and Lansing was 45 that was the 6th coldest reading for the date at both locations. At Muskegon the official high was 43 and that was the 4th coldest maximum for the date and at Holland their official high of 42 was their 2nd coldest maximum for the date. At Grand Rapids and Muskegon there trace of snow that fell was tied the record for the most for the date. and at Lansing their trace of… Read more »
33 here. Our little dog wasted no time outdoors this morning.
Yesterday was another double digit below normal temp day! Amazing food stretch so far this entire year!!!!! Wow!
More cold! Mookie was crowing about 70 degree temps this weekend and I said no way! Low and behold it looks like low 60’s will be about it! Still below normal temps! Who would have thought? Absolutely incredible!