Weather History – 4/9

1969: A brief tornado damaged a house near Loomis in Isabella County.

1973: A snowstorm dumps 3 to 8 inches of snow across much of Lower Michigan. Record snowfall for the date includes 6.5 inches at Muskegon, 5.2 inches at Lansing, and 4.4 inches at Grand Rapids.

2008: A tornado hit from near Plainwell in Allegan County to Doster in Barry County at 1:40 a.m. It did significant damage to a horse barn, lifted a trailer adjacent to the barn, damaged gravel yard equipment, lofted a tank, and uprooted numerous large trees.

On April 9, 2016, a late-season snowstorm that began the night before produced significant snowfall over southern portions of the area. Adrian measured 7.2 inches and 6 to 7 inches fell in Temperance, the Irish Hills, and Manchester.

Also, on April 9, 2001, Ann Arbor, Manchester, Saline, and Belleville reported golfball-sized hail during the morning hours. Other areas in Metro Detroit reported hail with a 2-3 inch diameter.

Forecast Discussion

Skies will be mostly cloudy today with rain developing this afternoon. The rain will mix with some wet snow late this afternoon and evening. Any accumulations by midnight should be light on the order of a dusting to around an inch. Highs will be in the 40s, but temperatures will fall this afternoon after the precipitation starts. South winds of 10 to 20 mph will develop today.

- Rain/snow mix today/tonight

Latest water vapor imagery shows a short wave moving across North
Dakota headed toward the Great Lakes. This wave will help to
develop the surface low over the Missouri Valley as it moves east
toward Lower MI later today. Models continue to show light
rain and snow developing this afternoon. The question remains how
much snow, if any, we`ll accumulate from late afternoon through
tonight.

We`re expecting surface temperatures to climb into the 40s this
afternoon prior to the onset of precipitation which would
certainly be a hindrance to snow development. However, current
dewpoints are fairly low...in the teens...and any precipitation
that begins will help to cool the column via wet bulb processes.
Due to this we lowered surface temperatures a couple of degrees
from late afternoon through the evening which resulted in some
light snow accumulation tonight. Ground temperatures are warming
which will also be a mitigating factor.

Two areas of snowfall accumulation could occur tonight. The first
is over the northeast cwa where temperatures are colder and we see
some lift via fgen processes. The second is closer to I-94 near
the low track that could see some higher precipitation rates that
overcome warmer ground temperatures. Both of those areas could see
an inch or so of accumulation tonight.

Whatever does accumulate tonight will melt Thursday as
temperatures warm into the 40s again.

- Warming trend through the weekend

The upper troughing will move east toward the weekend and with it
will go the cold air. Rising heights will lead to warmer
temperatures. Highs in the lower 50s Friday will warm to the upper
50s Saturday and into the 60s by Sunday with lower 70s possible
Monday. The weekend looks pretty dry at this point with the next
chance of rain arriving Monday.