October 29
1925: October feels more like December as snow and cold prevail for much of the last half of the month. Measurable snow falls for three consecutive days with high temperatures at or near freezing from October 28th to the 30th.
October 30
1988: Record cold temperatures in the teens and lower 20s close out the month. The low of 18 degrees at Grand Rapids on this day ties the record for the coldest ever recorded in October.
October 31
1917: One of the coldest Octobers on record ends on a wintry note with about an inch of snow and high temperatures only in the lower 30s.
1950: Halloween treats Lower Michigan to balmy temperatures. Grand Rapids hits 79 degrees and Lansing 77, both record highs for the date.
November 1
1950: Warm weather starts the month with temperatures around 80 degrees across Lower Michigan. Lansing sets their record high for the month of November at 81 degrees.
1976: Cold weather will rule this month across Lower Michigan. Grand Rapids sets a record low of 21 degrees to start the coldest November on record there.
November 2
1938: A record high of 77 degrees is set at Grand Rapids as a three day spell of very warm weather begins the month.
November 3
1966: A record early season snowstorm drops 6 to 12 inches of snow across southwest Lower Michigan.
1990: Heavy fog resulted in a fatal aircraft accident near Shelby, Michigan. A private plane trying to land at the local airport in the fog stalled and crashed, killing the pilot.
November 4
2003: Heavy rains of an inch or more across southwest Lower Michigan on this day set the tone for November, 2003. This turns out to be the wettest November on record at both Grand Rapids and Lansing.
We ended October with the wettest on record for Allegan County, our station in Otsego recorded 12.92 inches for the month and 46.8 inches for the year.
My friends at Storm Team 8 came out with their winter forecast yesterday afternoon – very similar to mine with the main theme being the active storm track being south of Michigan creating a variable rain/snow pattern for the early part of the winter – you can check that out on WOODTV.
I still believe most of the coldest air and snow will hang out in the extreme northern CONUS (North Dakota, northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin and the U.P.) and northern Rockies through most of the month at least through Thanksgiving then the pattern will gradually mosey its way southward through December when we will alternate between rain and snow dependent of the storm tracks.
Sunday evening through early Monday will be an interesting with chances of storms and highs in the mid sixties as our next cold front approaches and drops our temperatures back into the fifties on Monday. Below is the GEFS model for that period showing the SCP forecast (super-cell composite parameters). It shows where the best chances of severe weather will be.
Not sure what kind of car is in picture but you know you are old when you can remember when cars had windshields that had two sides like that.
Slim
In looking at the WOOD TV winter guess my take is their guess is as good as any. As is the case in most winters a lot depends on where the storm track sets up. To me November still looks as if it might be warmer and wetter than average. As for the winter if the main storm track stays to our west and north west warmer than average will be the way to go. On a side note the snow fall history that is given in the WOOD winter guess only goes back to 1986 for some reason. They… Read more »