We had a stormy night last night with lots of thunder and lightning, nothing severe. We picked up 1.02 inches of rain which brought our April rainfall total to a wet 6.77 inches. Our spring total of rain and melted snow is 9.21 inches. Yesterday’s high temp was 61° and the low 47°. Overall April was a wet and cool month.
I am going to go out on a limb and suggest our daytime highs of the 30s and 40s are done as we start the month of May with promises of higher temps as we conclude the last month of spring and look towards the summer months. This week high temps will range from the mid-50s to mid-60s with the lows in the mid-40s.
Skies will be mostly cloudy once again today, although there will be some peaks of the sun during the morning. High temperatures will be in the 50s towards Lake Michigan and in the low 60s near Highway 127 in the middle of the state. Some isolated rain showers will be possible. Southwest winds of 10 to 20 mph are expected.
Forecast Discussion
...A few opportunities for rain this week... Radar shows the band of showers and storms has weakened as it continues to move east. The upper trough remains to the west and will move across the state this afternoon, at which time a few more showers may develop, but additional rainfall amounts will only be a hundredth or two. Weak upper ridging moves over the cwa Monday providing dry weather and perhaps a few peaks of sun, but overall, a mostly cloudy day is expected. Another low will move toward Lower Michigan Monday night and produce rain Tuesday. A half inch of rain is expected from this system. The GFS is farther south compared with the ECMWF. As such, the GFS would keep thunder south of the cwa, but we`ll include a slight chance of thunder across the southern cwa as a nod to the ECMWF. Weak ridging again moves in Thursday, followed by another low Thursday night and Friday. Both the ECMWF and GFS show the low weakening as it moves across southern Lower Friday. QPF with this system looks to be a tenth of an inch or so. A much more amplified ridge is progd to develop over the Mississippi Valley during the latter half of next weekend. This will lead to several days of dry weather as also highlighted in the CPC 6 to 10 day outlook.
This from todays NWS discussion tells the true story for the month of April
“COOL HIGH PRESSURE RIDGE WILL EXTEND INTO LOWER MICHIGAN IN THE
LOW’S WAKE BUT CURRENT FORECAST LOWS DO NOT APPEAR TO BE COLD
ENOUGH TO CAUSE ANY DAMAGE TO FRUIT TREES OR OTHER VEGETATION
SINCE BUDS AND BLOSSOMS ARE BEHIND SCHEDULE AFTER A COLDER THAN
NORMAL MONTH OF APRIL.”
Nothing more needs to be said on the just completed cold April
Slim
Incredible cold, dreary Spring so far!
Lansing finished April a whopping one degree below average. Wow!
Yep, even Michigan’s “hot” spot Lansing was below average in April and that was with two days in the 80’s. Lansing was the “warmest” location compared to average in lower Michigan.
Slim
Thanks for the FACTS! I love it!
There is a mist falling at this time and the temperature has fallen from the cool high of 57 and is now at 51. In the wind it feels even colder than that out.
Slim
Just another lousy Spring day today and Monday and Tuesday will be lousy as well! Then a chance of some drier weather and some sun! Incredible!l
Woohoo!
What? After 4 months of cold we might actually see a temp above 70 degrees in a week or so? Incredible stretch of cold weather we have had! Simply amazing!
A warmer than average May after a warmer than average March?
Ya right more fake news! GR is well below normal for the year so far! Incredible cold and May will be near to below normal!
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/predictions/long_range/lead14/
Yay!!
We’ve had a few peeks of sunshine today. 62 and cloudy now. Another decent day. Everything is super green. Even the trees are starting to green.
I’m enjoying all the green and the increased humidity today!
Not a real nice day here in Grand Rapids today cloudy and now there is a light mist falling and with the wind it feels colder than the 51 that it is at this time
Slim
Usually Mother’s Day in Michigan is when you’re safe to plant anything outside, but it looks like we may be out of the woods for freezing temps! At least 5 months of glorious warm weather!
Last few days have been pretty average. Looks like some hints of average to warmer than average temps showing up now!
I see some people said Grand Rapids was cool cloudy and wet yesterday. I was over north of Detroit near Rochester Hills and Oxford. It was great weather but a little breezy. I did not experience any blowtorch weather in Oxford while there.
Right now temp has rose to 59 after a brief interval of sunshine but clouds have taken back over.
Well here we are in May now. May is one of my favorite months of the year. My favorite months of the year are June and July. I enjoy November as well. Looks like we may be solidly in the warmth now till things cool down again in October. By then we will be talking snow chances again but let’s enjoy this weather ahead of us first.
Welcome to the best month of year MAY DAY! Now the real warmth starts and the sunshine woo woo …INDY
If you like highs in the 50’s, when the normal highs should close to the upper 60’s you will love the weather this coming week! Ridiculous!
While it is still too soon to plant in the ground, it looks like nighttime lows the next 2 weeks are all 40+ (according to TWC… may not be accurate). Seems to me planting in pots is okay at this point? Or still too early?
It OK to pant anything and everything right now! The cold pattern will be gradually changing to a near normal pattern in a week or so!
Welcome to May!! Looking back at April it was indeed a cool and wet month. The mean at Grand Rapids was 43.6° that is -4.0 from the 30 year average mean. The high for the month was a very mild 82 on the 23rd and the low was 23 on the 2nd. Only 8 days all month were warmer than average and 22 where below average. There was a total of 5.19″ of rain fall. There was just 0.4″ of snow fall. It was also cooler and wetter then average at Muskegon with a mean of 44.1 and a departure… Read more »
The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 57/46 with some light rain and a east wind it felt colder then that. Overnight some heavy rain with thunderstorms moved in and here at my house a total of 1.12″ of rain fell the official amount for GRR was 1.01″ The overnight low here was 47 and at this time with blue sky to the west it is 53.
Slim
Incredible cold, cloudy, wet, and windy month! In other words horrendous weather pattern!
It was a wet month. It sure seems like we got more than three and half inches of rain.
Had a nice time on the links with my son yesterday. Decent day. Mix of clouds and sun and 63. Wind was cool so a pullover was all that was needed.
It was a cooler day here in Grand Rapids and with the rain and wind it felt even cooler.
Slim
Most of the day in GR the temps were in the 40’s to the low 50’s, with clouds, rain and 25 to 30 mph winds! Winds chills in the low to mid 40’s! In other words another horrible April Spring day! Horrendous weather pattern! Give me SNOW or nice warm Spring temps, not the garbage we are having now!
You could not pay me to golf in the GR area yesterday! Very uncomfortable and wet! Horrible!
We had a shower about 2pm, but that was all. It kept the greens nice and slow.