With springtime in the air, it is time to put away thoughts of snow and cold air. We just fell short of 40 inches of snow this year which is about half of what our normal is for Allegan County. We finished off March with two inches of snow and 3.47 inches of rain.
I opened up our small fish pond this weekend to waken the fish and frogs. We had six frogs come to life and the fish stared swimming around after being dormant all winter. We have had a lot of frogs the past couple of years, this past weekend we could hear a lot of them from my neighbor’s large pond next door. This is a sure sign of spring.
Weather History
March 29
1910: Temperatures peak in the upper 70s to lower 80s during one of the warmest months of March on record across Lower Michigan. The high of 82 degrees set a record for the warmest ever recorded in March at Grand Rapids.
1954: A snowstorm drops from 5 to 10 inches of snow across southern Lower Michigan. Kalamazoo records 8 inches of snow and Grand Rapids a record 7.5 inches.
March 30
1977: A tornado struck four miles north of Hart in Oceana County, injuring three people as it destroyed four trailers and damaged a business.
March 31
1923: March goes out like a cold lion with record lows in the single numbers and lake effect snow showers.
2006: A tornado hits a few miles east of Jackson, taking down hundreds of trees and causing minor structural damage in the town of Leoni.
April 1
1923: Winter persists into April as temperatures fall to a record cold 8 degrees at Lansing and 9 degrees at Muskegon.
1970: An April Fool’s Day snowstorm drops 10 inches of snow on Lansing. Another 7 inches of snow falls the next day.
April 2
1977: A tornado outbreak in southern Lower Michigan kills one person and injures about 50 others. One thunderstorm spawned two violent tornadoes in Kalamazoo and Eaton Counties. Several homes and businesses were destroyed on the southwest edge of Augusta by the first tornado. The second tornado destroyed 21 homes and 28 outbuildings as it moved from near Bellevue to Eaton Rapids. Other tornadoes hit near north of Bath in Clinton County and southeast of Dansville in Ingham County.
April 3
1956: Eighteen people are killed and over 300 injured as four powerful tornadoes strike western Lower Michigan. Hudsonville and the northwest suburbs of Grand Rapids are the hardest hit areas with 17 fatalities as homes and businesses were completely swept away by an F5 tornado.
1974: The worst tornado outbreak in United States history strikes from Illinois to Alabama, with 148 tornadoes killing over 300 people. In Michigan, a tornado kills two people as it tracks across Hillsdale and Jackson Counties.
April 4
2003: A devastating ice storm strikes central Lower Michigan. Heavy rain from thunderstorms falls into a layer of cold air near the ground and freezes on contact, creating sheaths of ice up to 3 inches thick that brings down thousands of tree limbs. It was estimated that 450,000 homes and businesses lost power during the storm and that nearly 50,000 people were without power for a week as persistent cold temperatures keep the heavy ice on the trees for 4 days after the storm. Crews came from four different states to help local utility companies restore power.
Here is the NWS climate summary for March:
HAPPY APRIL FOOL’S DAY everyone!! Here is a good one to check out. If only we could really do this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAwL0O5nXe0
That’s great!
Talking with friend in Africa. They are on a 21 day lockdown. Can only go to a store for food. They are on Day 6. With the holiday coming up they are calling it a corholiday for kids in school. LOL!!!
Wow, WOOD has 57-70 degrees in the forecast starting tomorrow!
At this time the seasonal snow fall totals in west Michigan are Grand Rapids 51.3″ Muskegon 51.9″ to the east at Lansing 44.7″ At Detroit the total is 38.3″ Flint 52.5″ and Saginaw just 34.5″ in northern lower Michigan the totals are
https://www.weather.gov/apx/snow
And Marquette 183.9″
Slim
In taking a better look at the March stats from above I see that the NWS made a few mistakes for Lansing and Muskegon.
For Lansing the mean temperature for March was 39.0 not the 47.8 as stated above. And at Muskegon the mean there was 38.3 and not the 46.2 as reported. The stats for GR and the snow fall and precp for Lansing and Muskegon are correct.
Slim
Happy April Fool’s Day
Happy April Fool’s Day!
MV you can delete this user account (the one with the purple face). Wondered why my avatar changed. I had been commenting using an email address with a typo. Sorry for the error.
Well Happy April Fools day. Just hope the joke is not on all of us.
Slim
Welcome to April. MV has the NWS March summery post above. At this time it is cloudy and 41 here at my house.
Slim