Welcome to October
I am up in the Bay City area. My mother in laws funeral is going to be on Monday. It has been a very stressful few weeks for my wife as she has been up here for the better part of a month helping her mother be for her mother was taken to the hospital and now with her mothers passing. We will be back in Grand Rapids on Wednesday but in the mean time I will post this and will post a few other things when I get the time. I am using a neighbors wi-fi and it seems to work fine.
I was cleaning my upstairs out last week and came across a old Grand Rapids Press form October 6th 1985. And in part of the old paper there was the weather forecast. So I thought I would take that old forecast and see how it compared to the accurate readings for the next several days. Here is the forecast for that Sunday October 6th for Grand Rapids.
“Today: Partly cloudy high in the mid 50’s west wind 10 to 15 MPH.
Tonight: Fair low near 40.
Monday: Partly cloudy high in the lower 60’s
Tuesday through Thursday: Chance of showers Tuesday and Wednesday Highs in the mid 60’s to upper 60’s Tuesday Upper 60’s Wednesday In the mid 50’s to low 60 on Thursday. Lows in the mid 30’s to low 40’s on Tuesday Mid 50’s on Wednesday and upper 30’s to low 40’s on Thursday.
Well, here is the actual readings. Sunday October 6th High 53 low 38. Monday Oct 7th High 67 low 38. Tuesday October 8th high 65 low 38. Wednesday October 9th high 59 low 52 and Thursday October 10 high 55 low 46. It did indeed rain on Tuesday and Wednesday. Note that back at that time the NWS did not try to pinpoint the high/low but instead gave a range of readings such as mid 60 or low 60’s
First off here is how an English travel site describes Michigan for October travel.
October is the period of peak fall foliage in the countryside of Michigan that brings the glory of the wilderness into the limelight. The average high temperatures are in the comfortable 56°F (13.3°C) to 63°F (17.2°C) range, but the nights are cold with average low temperatures in the 32°F (0°C) to 44°F (6.7°C).
There are 12 to 15 wet days in the month. The skies are cloudy, especially in the Great Lakes region, due to the mixing of contrasting air masses. The first cold waves hit in the Upper Peninsula by the mid of the of the month as the foliage reaches its peak. Evenings are breezy, while nights tend to be cold.
Warm clothing is beneficiary in the evenings, while the days are still mild. The harvest season is on its last legs with the invasion of frost on the lands. October is the last month of fair weather in Michigan.
For Grand Rapids the average the average H/L is 67.5/47.2 on the 1st falling to 54.0/37.5 by the 31st The record high for October is 89 on October 1st 1897 in more recent times it reached 88 on October 8th 2007 that was the last day of 5 days in a row in the 80’s with highs of 87 on the 6th and 7th before that high of 88. The record low was a cold 18 on the 30th in 1988. On average there is 0.4” of snow fall the most snow to fall in October is 8.4” in 1967. There was 0.3” in 2019 and 0.4” in 2017 and the most in recent times is 2.1” in 2006. If it snows in October that doesn’t mean that there will be a lot of snow in the winter season in fact many years with snow in October have below average snow fall in the winter after.
The warmest mean temperature for October at Grand Rapids is 59.1 in 1900 the mean was 58.9 in 1920 it was 58.8 in 1947 and 1963 and it was 58.1 in 2007. The coldest October at Grand Rapids was in 1925 and 1917 with a mean of 42.9 in more recent times it was 44.2 in 1988. In the last 20 years the coldest Octobers at GR were in 2002 with 47.0 and 2006 with 47.1.
This past September was warm and sunny the mean at Grand Rapids was 65.6 and that is a departure of +2.1° There was a total of 21 days above average 8 were below average and one was average. The high was 86 on the 7th and the lowest was 47 on the 23rd and again on the 26th. That 47 is the 3rd warmest low for any September at Grand Rapids. It was very sunny with a total of 70% of possible sunshine. Grand Rapids had 16 days with 90% sunshine.
Slim
Rain…what a concept.
October such a transition month I used to think November was but …….Leafs are changing nicely around my hood who doesn’t love this time of year?? LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LET IT SNOW LOL…INDY
We had a high temp of 79 degrees yesterday & the low was 49. Today we will see clouds, something that hasn’t been in the sky for several days and then some rain! Our last rain was on Sept 25th when we had .31 of an inch. Our last dry spell lasted 12 days in September.