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.
May 1
1966: A May Day snowstorm drops 4 inches of snow at Lansing.
May 2
1929: A snowstorm puts down a slushy coating of 2 to 3 inches of snow across southwest Lower Michigan.
1930: Grand Rapids was struck by a tornado that moved through the factory district on the south part of the city. Four people were injured as many buildings were unroofed. Damage totaled over a million dollars.
May 3
1954: Snow falls on three straight days from the 3rd to the 5th across Lower Michigan. Record snowfall on this date includes the 1.3 inches at Grand Rapids.
1959: Muskegon sets a record high of 82 degrees during a string of five straight days over 80 degrees.
May 4
1928: A tornado destroyed several cottages along Bostwick Lake, about ten miles northeast of Grand Rapids.
May 5
1895: An early season heat wave peaks with record highs of 96 degrees at Grand Rapids and 92 at Lansing. The 96 degrees at Grand Rapids is a record for so early in the season.
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The warm and increasingly humid southwest flow will continue for the next few days as a slow moving cold front approaches from the west. There will be some showers and thunderstorms around…especially at night into the end of the week. The SPC graphics above show we have a moderate risk for storms through Thursday.
Really dry out there as we haven’t seen much rain since mid month in March. Looking at the HRRR, NAM and GFS there is a wide variety of difference in rainfall through Friday. The reasoning would be the uncertainty of storms and where they may dump the most rain. We could see around an inch of much needed rain.
We reach 86° yesterday both in Allegan and Otsego – hot enough to run the air conditioners. The grass has greened up and I have a suspicion I will be out mowing this weekend, especially if we get and decent rainfall.
Wow…xmi/ch17 needs a sedative. Their calling this a Derecho with 85 mph winds and embedded tornados.
Thunderstorm warning for that line coming across the lake!
Gnarly line in Wisconsin. Something to watch.
Weakening as usual, with the infamous “split” underway.
Thunderstorm drought over in Kent County!
Hooray, looks like rain is on the way. I hope it holds together. Some thunder would be nice.
Already up to 81 degrees in GR!
Interesting, since WOOD and The Weather Channel both had us having a cool May.
http://www.cpc.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/lead14/off15_temp.gif
Temporary…May is expected to be well below average.
With the 80° milestone already reached for the 2018 summer season the next questions are when the last 32° low will happen (or did it already happen) the average last date is May 1st the latest last 32 date at Grand Rapids is June 4th 1945. And when will the first 90 day happen (if it happens) the earliest date was April 29th 1899 the mean date is June 19th two summers it did not happen (2014 and 1950) and the latest in years it did happen was August 11th 1907 the latest was September 29th 1953.
Slim
How about we start talking about Thunderstorm drought we know its warm and Spring now but we need rain!! INDYDOG14!!
I agree. It is pretty dry out there.
Going back to April 15th only 0.15” of moisture has fallen and of that amount 1.9” fell as snow and sleet and freezing rain.
Slim
+1
If it does not get below 61 before midnight today. Grand Rapids will set a new warmest minimum temperature for May 2nd of course the current warmest minimum of 60° for today is the coldest warmest minimum between April 12th (56 in 1945) and October 25th (59° in 1899)
Slim
The hourly forecast says 65 by midnight, so it looks like GR could obliterate their old record by 5 degrees then.
Is that correct that the nighttime low was 68 degrees last night? That’s 25 degrees above average and would have to be a record, if not super close to one.
The record warmest minimum for May 1st is 71 way back in 1899. However the official H/L for May 1st this year will be 83/59. However see above.
Slim
May 2, 2017: GR hit 46 degrees for a high. Going to around 80 this year!
Now that a cold and snowy April is in the books I am officially rooting for temps in the 60’s and 70’s! Forget 80’s and 90’s = too HOT!
I agree with 80s and 90s being to hot. Yesterday felt terrible at work. First day of the year it topped 100 degrees inside by us, just horrible. Doesn’t feel much better here this morning.
I agree too, 60’s and 70’s are perfect. I have a lot of projects to complete on my house for Spring, Summer & Fall. So I’d like to keep those temps in that range this year!
I have never had that many people agree with one of my weather comments before! INCREDIBLE 🙂
that is perfect weather. I love the 60’s and 70’s. I know yesterday was like a summer day but I hate to say it it was hot. Our house was hot.
GR hit 83 yesterday and had a +17 degrees above average day. For context, we only saw two days all of April that had a bigger departure from average than yesterday.