We had another hit or miss day rain wise yesterday. One would have thought with the air as heavy as it was with moisture rainfall totals would have been higher however we managed to squeeze out only a couple hundredths of an inch here in Otsego.
There is a very slight chance of showers today and the rest of the week doesn’t look to bode well for rain at all. Temps will be warm today then normalize for the rest of the week.
Weather History
August 18
1943: Autumn is in the air with record cool temperatures of 41 degrees at Grand Rapids and 43 degrees at Muskegon.
1955: West Michigan is in the midst of another heat wave with Grand Rapids setting a record high of 97 degrees, helping this become the second hottest August on record there.
August 19
1939: A total of 4.22 inches of rain falls for the wettest August day on record at Grand Rapids.
1977: Cool air from Canada brings record lows of 37 degrees at Lansing and 43 degrees at Grand Rapids.
1996: Severe thunderstorms produce damaging winds from Cadillac to Ionia. Montcalm County is one of the hardest hit places. Numerous trees are blown down from Greenville to Sheridan. In the town of Sheridan, there several reports of building damage mostly to roofs. A school in Greenville had a large plate glass window blown out.
August 20
1992: Temperatures fall into the 30s in some rural areas during the coldest August on record at Grand Rapids. Record lows for the day include 42 degrees at Muskegon and 43 degrees at Grand Rapids.
2007: Heavy rain falls across southern Lower Michigan for the second consecutive day. Grand Rapids and Lansing both set daily rainfall records and some places see over 4 inches of rain for the two day total on the 19th and 20th.
2016: Tornadoes strike from Bangor to Grand Rapids and east of Belding. There were no injuries, despite damage to several buildings and hundreds of trees being downed.
August 21
1958: Heavy rains fall for the second day in a row, causing some flooding in the Grand Rapids area where the two day rain total from August 20-21 was over 4 inches.
1975: A tornado blew down fruit trees in an orchard at Climax, in Kalamazoo County.
2003: A tornado with top winds around 120 mph strikes eastern Ingham County injuring two people and destroying two homes. The damage path was 4 and a half miles long and up to one half mile wide.
August 22
1936: The Dust Bowl summer of 1936 produced more record heat, with a high of 98 degrees at Grand Rapids and 94 at Lansing.
1964: Tornadoes struck in Calhoun, Lenawee and Hillsdale Counties. Three people were injured northeast of Battle Creek as a house and factory were damaged.
1966: A tornado struck Bellevue in Eaton County, damaging a house, garage and two cars.
2001: Severe weather and flooding hit Allegan, Ottawa and Kent Counties. Damaging winds hit Hudsonville, Plainwell, Dorr and Grand Rapids. Flooding occurred in eastern Van Buren and Kalamazoo Counties where three to five inches of rain is estimated to have fallen in less than 6 hours. Several streets were closed by flooding in Oshtemo flooded. Some businesses had to pump water out of their stores in Kalamazoo during the height of the storms.
August 23
2002: Several inches of rain in less than three hours caused flash flooding in Kalamazoo, where two homes and two businesses sustained extensive damage. Waldo Stadium, on the campus of Western Michigan University, also had major flooding. At one point, three feet of standing water covered the entire football field. The flooding caused an estimated 200,000 dollars in damage.
2007: Severe weather strikes Lower Michigan with large hail and damaging winds. Some of the worst damage is across Montcalm County where thousands of trees are downed by a tornado and downburst combination that produced estimated wind speeds up to 100 mph.
August 24
1947: The second long heat wave of the month comes to a close with record highs of 98 degrees at Grand Rapids and 96 degrees at Muskegon, contributing to the warmest August on record across West Michigan.
2006: Up to baseball-sized hail fell from a severe storm at Grand Junction in Van Buren County.
2007: Tornadoes strike Lower Michigan, with the worst damage near Potterville in Eaton County. Five people are injured and 15 homes are destroyed by a tornado with peak winds estimated at 140 mph. A weaker tornado hit southeast of Lansing but damage was limited to trees falling on mobile homes.
I remember the 8/24/07 storm. We lived in Charlotte. Wicked wind and hail.
Many days this month the humidity and dew points have been very comfortable and get ready for more!
Yup. The count is at 2 for the month.! Yesterday felt especially refreshing when the heat index was 95!
6 out of the last 7 months we have had below normal temps! What a great pattern! What a great summer!
August will be our second straight above average month. It’s been a warm and humid summer.
14 out of the last 18 days have now been above average. We’ve only had one day below 80 degrees the entire month.
It got so dark yesterday afternoon that all the outdoor lights came on, but only 5 minutes of sprinkles. This morning is so damp and humid that the condensation on the PWS rain funnel actually registered 0.01” of moisture, the same amount of rain we had yesterday.hard to believe we can be this humid for this long and not get rain.
Get ready for the cold front and multiple below normal temp days! What a great summer!
Here at my house I hit the jackpot in yesterdays rain fall I recorded 0.44″ of rain. I was not home when the rain fell but my wife said it came down fast and heavy. At work there (about 6 miles away) it rained but no where near as much as here at my house. The current temperature here at my house is 65 with clear skies.
Slim