April 15
1943: Temperatures plunge into the teens as snowflakes swirl in the arctic winds. Record lows include 16 degrees at Muskegon and 18 degrees at Grand Rapids.
2002: A four day stretch of record warm weather peaks across Lower Michigan with Grand Rapids hitting 86 degrees and Lansing 84.
April 16
1961: From 6 to 12 inches of snow falls across southwest Lower Michigan. The storm drops 12.2 inches at Grand Rapids, the heaviest April snowfall on record there.
April 17
1875: Extreme late season cold sets records across Lower Michigan. Detroit falls to 10 degrees on this date and 8 degrees on the 18th. Lansing bottoms out at an incredible zero degrees.
1922: Heavy rain from a slow moving thunderstorm causes some street flooding in Grand Rapids. The daily total of 2.94 inches at Grand Rapids is a record for April.
April 18
1880: A tornado struck Chester, in Eaton County where barns were destroyed and livestock was killed. A quarter-mile wide swath of trees was leveled in a forest by the tornado.
April 19
1957: Less than a week after record low temperatures in the teens, high temperatures are pushing 80 degrees across Lower Michigan. Muskegon went from 19 degrees on the 15th to a high of 79 on this date, a rise of 60 degrees in four days.
April 20
1966: A tornado killed livestock and damaged a barn and garage in Morley in Mecosta County. Another tornado hit Peach Ridge in Kent County, damaging a steel tower.
April 21
1923: A tornado struck three miles west of Scottville in Mason County. It destroyed an unoccupied home and carried pieces of it over a mile.
1967: A tornado outbreak hits from Missouri to Michigan, killing 58 people. The worst of the damage was in northern Illinois, where dozens of people were killed in Belvidere and Oak Lawn. At least seven tornadoes hit Michigan, injuring more than 50 people and destroying dozens of homes. A tornado moved across the southern outskirts of Grand Rapids, doing heavy damage. Thirty-two people were injured and a total of 65 buildings were destroyed and another 60 heavily damaged. Another tornado injured eight people and killed 34 sheep as it moved from Westphalia to the south edge of Fowler in Clinton County.
2013: Heavy spring rains caused severe flooding. The Grand River crested at 21.85 feet in downtown Grand Rapids on the 22nd, with fish being photographed from the submerged windows of buildings along the river.
Things will be looking up after today. Low pressure will move from Missouri this morning to Pennsylvania by Thursday morning. As the low moves south of the Great Lakes precipitation will spread into Lower Michigan this afternoon and continue into Tonight.
The precipitation will start off as mainly rain this afternoon as temperatures warm into the 40s. Tonight however, readings will cool into the 30s and the precipitation will switch over to snow. Light accumulations of snow are certainly
possible with a dusting to possibly around 1 inch of new snow forecast in many areas. Dry weather will return for Thursday and continue right through the upcoming weekend as high pressure settlesinto the Great Lakes region. After highs in the 40s today and Thursday, readings will warm into the 50s on Friday, possibly hitting 60 over the weekend.
I have some onions and taters screaming to get into the ground. Perhaps I will sneak a few of the onion bulbs into my wife’s flower bed to see if she notices.
Below is the wrap-up of the April 14-15 storm.
FINALLY!!
A HIGH of 55 on 4/20 this FRYday”…yay..
How about some Beach Boy music Friday?
And this…
How I feel….
Let it SNOW, Let it SNOW, Let it SNOW!!
So sad, what are you going to do after tomorrow morning, when this light dusting melts?? The daily winter trolling will be over. Hibernation til December??
Winter is done!! Yes!!
👍
Snowing here.
Bill said less than 1/2 an inch in GR and around an inch south of GR. He also said really nothing north of GR. Hopefully he’s right!
http://media.woodtv.com/nxs-woodtv-media-us-east-1/weather/maps/8forecast_640x480.jpg
Looking fantastic after tonight!! TO HELL WITH WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!
He is dead wrong! I am in Northern Kent County and we are getting pounded with SNOW! We have almost 1/2 inch already! INCREDIBLE!
Oh yeah, I forgot the measuring stick you use! By your measurements, I already have well over 9” here at my place!
http://mattinsocal.theswig.com/FishermansRuler.jpg
Why not – one more WWA! I absolutely love it!
Yeah a half inch of snow and an icy morning commute is really awesome!!! There are so many winter sports you can do with a half inch of snow on the ground while pulling your car out of the ditch because of the black ice, so fun!! It’s the winter troll’s last hurrah!
A WWA for a forecasted inch or less of snow.
The NWS discussion says the WWA is more for the ice that may be possible on the roads.
April 30th, 2017 high of 44 degrees in GR. May 2nd, 2017 high of 46 degrees in GR. Looks much warmer this year than last year! Remarkable! It’s funny how quickly people forget.
How quickly people forget – we had below normal temps for March and we will for April and we are now well above normal for SNOWFALL! Who would have though?
Lol barely below March, barely above snow, and pretty much 24 months of warmth prior. I love it!
Looks like nothing but around 60 degrees as far as the eye can see beginning Saturday!
GOLFING 18 ON SUNDAY!!! GET READY!! BRING IT!!
If the greens are thawed and no snow is on the greens I may consider golf, however I am still thinking about a snowmobile trip up to the UP baby!
If you want to torture yourself like that then go ahead!
Indydog14 is Ready! Warm weather please!
INCREDIBLE WARMTH COMING FOR THE END OF APRIL!!
No Andy near normal highs are not incredible, however double digit below normal for the month of APRIL is INCREDIBLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It’s going to be 30 degrees warmer than it has been, so THAT’S INCREDIBLE!!
We won’t end up double digits below. Simple math. The warmth is going to feel so nice!
173 days now since our last 70* degree temp! Being so late in April now forget the 60’s talk lol! INDYDOG14!!
We have still have snow on the ground this late into April! This is even longer than a few years back when the POLAR VORTEX hit MI for months on end!
So have you set your final snowfall of the season party up for tonight?? Hopefully we’ll be able to dig out in the morning when we get “HAMMERED” from that massive 1 inch or less of snowfall! Must be a sad day for you like every other season when your winter trolling comes to an end!
No trolling just COLD and SNOW facts!!!!!
Just as I suspected. Multiple locations in Sothern Lower Michigan are outside the top 10 coldest when looking at April 1-15th. With the second half of April much, much warmer than the first half, it looks like no monthly records will be made for our area, and many locations won’t even be in the top 10. You can see the relatively coldest air has been to our west in Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Montana.
https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/april-snowstorm-ages-upper-midwest-gets-plastered
INCREDIBLE WARMTH COMING FOR THE END OF APRIL!!
The cold continues for this April. At this time the mean temperature for April 2018 at Grand Rapids is 34.0° that is a departure of -11.4° the first 17 days of this April have been colder than an average March that has a mean of 35.6° We still have a couple of very cold days to go before a expected warm up. We will have to see how much the mean goes up in the last 8 days or so this month. But the month will end up well below average.
Slim
INCREDIBLE APRIL COLD!!
Looks like the warm up has begun! 10+ degrees warmer today than yesterday, then another 10 degrees Friday, and another 10 degrees Monday. Does GR hit 70 degrees next week? WOOD still has 68! Stay tuned.
Thanks for pointing that out! More information as to just how cold this April has been. The last time Grand Rapids did not reached either 70+ or 80+ in April you would have to go all the way back to April 1961. If it makes 70 or even warmer no real big deal.
Slim
INCREDIBLE APRIL COLD!!
A new record coldest maximum record set. With yesterdays official high of 34° at Grand Rapids that sets a new record coldest maximum for April 17 this is the 2nd such record this week as a new record was also set on Sunday the 15th of 35°
Slim
Don’t forget GR set a daily snowfall record a day or so ago! AMAZING!
The golf courses have snow and ice on the greens and HS Spring sports are on hold! WOW!
Get ready! GR may get hammered with an inch of SNOW tonight which will just keep adding to our already above normal seasonal totals! What a WINTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!