westMJim

The average H/L is now for Grand Rapids at 68/46 and by the 16th the average H/L is 70/47. So far this May the average H/L at Grand Rapids has been 61.3/43.1 the average H/L for this deep into May should be 66.3/44.4 The good news is that the overnight lows have been as warm as they have been otherwise, we would be much more below average then we have been so far. At this time the mean for this May is 52.1° that is good for a departure of -3.1°

The overnight low here at my house was 35° (34.5) I do not know if there was any frost. The official low for Grand Rapids was 38° some other official readings were Muskegon 35, Marshal 35, Lansing 36. To the north Cadillac 29 and Gaylord 27. At this time it is cloudy and 53 here at my house.

Yes there have been 2 years in Grand Rapids recorded history that did not reach 90° or better 1951 and 2014. Both years had more warm days by May 9th then this year has had. Even 1992 the year without a summer seen more warm days by May 9th then this year has seen.

Grand Rapids has not seen a lot of very warm days yet this year. Yes, we have had several days were the temperatures have reached the 70’s Here it the break down for Grand Rapids for 2019 70° days 5 that is 4 in April and 1 in May. 60° days 13 1 in March, 10 in April and 2 here in May so far. and that is it. In terms of how few warm days GR has had so far this year. 2019 will have the latest first 80° of the 2000’s in fact the last time GR had its first 80 day later was in 1997. At this time it is dark off to the NW and the current temperature here at my house is 49°

Yet another cloudy cool and damp AM with a current temperature here of 46°

It has been a cloudy, wet and cool end of April and start of May. Grand Rapids has now had 7 days in a row of below average temperatures. And in the past 7 days Grand Rapids has had 2.8” of rain fall. At Muskegon they have reported 2.67” of rain in the last 7 days. At my house I recorded 2.77” of rain in the last 7 days. The current temperature here is 46 and yes, it is cloudy and the driveway and road are wet. I will try and cut the grass later today for the first cut of 2019.

The UP had a May snow storm yesterday!! Here are some snow fall amounts Marquette 5.4” (new record for the date old record was 3.3” set in 1976) Painesdale 5.2”, Michigamme 4.5”, Champion and Laurium 4.0”, Ishpeming, Calumet and Negaunee 3.0” For the winter season Marquette is now at 227.1” and at Tamarack the reported total there is 357.2” At Marquette that 227.1” is the most since 2007/08 when 246.0” fell and the record at Marquette is 319.8” in the 2001/02 season.

Welcome to May 2019. Here is a summery of how April 2019 ended up in southwest Michigan. At Grand Rapids the mean was 47.7° (-0.3°) the highest was 77 and the coldest was 19° the total precip was 4.05” and 4.9” of snow fall. At Muskegon the mean there was 47.1° (+0.5°) the highest was 80 and the coldest was 26° there was 3.38” of precip and 7.8” of snow fall. At Kalamazoo the mean was 48.5° the highest was 77 and the coldest was 20° there was a total of 3.90” of precip there is no report on snow fall. In central Michigan at Lansing the mean there was 47.2 (-0.2) the warmest was 76 and the coldest was 20 they reported a total of 3.50” of rain and snow with a reported 1.6” of snow fall. As you can see April’s temperatures were near average but there were some wild swings as the daily departures at Grand Rapids ranged from +16.4° to -13.0° there were 5 days of departures of departures of more then 10° below average and 3 days of departures of 10° above average. I would hope that the 2018/19 snow season is now over. If so here are the numbers for total seasonal snow fall. At Grand Rapids 81.3”. Muskegon 77.2” and off to the east Lansing reported just 38.8” but their report is missing the last 10 days of January and the total should be higher. Not sure if the NWS will update that or not. Note Kalamazoo does not keep an official snow fall record.

Welcome to May 2019. Here is a summery of how April 2019 ended up in southwest Michigan. At Grand Rapids the mean was 47.7° (-0.3°) the highest was 77 and the coldest was 19° the total precip was 4.05” and 4.9” of snow fall. At Muskegon the mean there was 47.1° (+0.5°) the highest was 80 and the coldest was 26° there was 3.38” of precip and 7.8” of snow fall. At Kalamazoo the mean was 48.5° the highest was 77 and the coldest was 20° there was a total of 3.90” of precip there is no report on snow fall. In central Michigan at Lansing the mean there was 47.2 (-0.2) the warmest was 76 and the coldest was 20 they reported a total of 3.50” of rain and snow with a reported 1.6” of snow fall. As you can see April’s temperatures were near average but there were some wild swings as the daily departures at Grand Rapids ranged from +16.4° to -13.0° there were 5 days of departures of departures of more then 10° below average and 3 days of departures of 10° above average. I would hope that the 2018/19 snow season is now over. If so here are the numbers for total seasonal snow fall. At Grand Rapids 81.3”. Muskegon 77.2” and off to the east Lansing reported just 38.8” but their report is missing the last 10 days of January and the total should be higher. Not sure if the NWS will update that or not. Note Kalamazoo does not keep an official snow fall record.

It is a cool 39.9° here at my house with rain falling. It looks like April 2019 will end up very close to average. As of this AM the departure here in Grand Rapids is +0.4° and today will be below average we will have to see how tomorrow turns out. This could be the 4th month in a row that has been cooler then average here at Grand Rapids.

You know Easter was last Sunday?

I just looked up the snow fall records for April 27 and April 28. For Grand Rapids for the 27th the record is 0.2" set in 2004 in 1992, 1953, and 1950 there was a trace. For April 28 the record at Grand Rapids is 0.9" in 1926 0.2" fell with a trace in 2012 and 1979. At Lansing for the 27 the record is 2.2" in 1950 with a trace in 2004,1966, 1953 and 1931. For the 28th at Lansing the record is just a trace set in 1961, 1926 and 1920. At Muskegon the record for the 27th is a trace in 2004,1988,1976,1953, and 1950. for the 28th the record at Muskegon is 1.6" in 1961 1.5" in 1979 and a trace in 1953 and 1909. At Kalamazoo the record for the 27th is 4.5" in 1950 with a trace in 1953,1945 and 1931. For the 28th the record is just a trace in 1961. So you can see our area has not received much snow in late April

It is kind of odd that the trees would not have buds on them in your side of the state, . Here in the west side of Michigan the spring flowers are out and the grass is green and growing and the trees either have baby leaves or are budding,

Yesterday was a great spring day. And today looks to be a repeat with slightly warmer temperatures. Here in my neck of the woods the grass is green, dandelions are showing their yellow flowers LOL spring flowers are in bloom, and the trees are starting to leaf out With just 6 days to go it is time to look and see how April 2019 is playing out so far. At Grand Rapids the mean is now at 47.8° that is +1.0° above average. The warmest/coldest is at 77/19 and so far there has been 4.9” of snow fall. At Muskegon the mean is 47.5 the H/L is 80/26 and there has been 7.8” of snow fall. Elsewhere around Michigan Lansing the mean is at 47.2° that is a departure of +0.9 the warmest is at 76 and the coldest is at 20 and their snow fall is at 1.6” At Detroit the mean is 49.2 the H/L is 74/22 and just a trace of snow fall. At Flint the mean is 46.2 the H/L is 74/20 and they have recorded 2.1” of snow fall so far. As Saginaw the mean is at 46.1 the H/L is at 76/21 and their snow fall is at 2.1” At Alpena the mean up there is at 41.3 the H/L is 76/18 and they have had 10.1” of snow fall. At the Sault the mean there is at 38.2 with the H/L there being 63/15 with just 2.5” of snow fall and they report a trace of snow still on the ground. At Marquette the numbers are a mean of 35.1 the H/L of 65/11 they reported 8.6” of snow fall and still report a trace on the ground. At Munising their mean is at 36.1 with the H/L of 61/18 they reported 5.3” of snow fall and at the airport there is a reported 7” of snow still on the ground.

It is a very nice spring day out today but that said this is from this afternoons GRR discussion. I do not think it will happen but we shall see. PERHAPS IT IS TIME TO START GETTING MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE RISK OF ACCUMULATING WET SNOW ON SATURDAY NIGHT. AFTER A NUDGE/TREND NORTHWARD WITH THE SFC LOW IN THE 00Z GUIDANCE, 12Z GUIDANCE HAS TRENDED BACK SOUTH AGAIN AND NOW SUGGEST A DECENT RISK FOR A SWATH OF ACCUMULATING SNOW ALONG THE I-96 CORRIDOR. THE AIR CERTAINLY LOOKS COLD ENOUGH TO SUPPORT IT, AS DEW POINTS IN THE 20S TO LOW 30S WILL AID IN EVAPORATIVE COOLING. THERE IS SOLID HALF INCH OR MORE OF QPF WITH THIS CLIPPER-LIKE SYSTEM, THE BULK OF WHICH IS EXPECTED TO FALL AT NIGHT WHEN LATE SEASON SNOW EVENTS HAVE A BETTER CHANCE OF PRODUCING ACCUMULATIONS

The high here in Grand Rapids of 65° today was reached at 3 AM and now the temperature is down to 45 and cloudy. Only received 0.02" of rain here, But even with the lack of rain things are green up here. There looks to be a good frost tonight with a low of 30 or so possible. And there is a chance of a rain/snow mix on Saturday night.

The official temperature at GRR is now at 74. Here at my house I now have 76. This will be the warmest April 22 since 2007 when the high reached 82. And the record for the date of 86 set in 1986 is safe. I have been outside and it sure feels nice out there.

Folklore has it that Good Friday is a good time to plant your garden. Well even with Good Friday this year being this late in the season it is still way too early for much planting in our area. Maybe frost hardy plants would be fine. Today is a cloudy and rather cool day while it has been wet so far this month (4.9” at Grand Rapids) it is a long ways off from the 11.10” that fell in 2013 and even in 2011 7.19” fell and in 2017 6.27” of rain and snow fell so there have been some very wet April’s in the recent past.

Parts of Michigan had a backward temperature swing last night. At Holland, Muskegon and Grand Rapids. At Holland the temperature rose from 59 at midnight all the way up to 68 at 2 AM and by 11 AM it was down to 53. At Muskegon the temperature went up from 61 at 11 PM to 68 at 12 midnight. and down to 48 by 10 AM. And here in Grand Rapids went from 59 at 3 am to 64 at 7 AM and is now at 56 at 11 am. See this more in the winter time but not so much in other times of the year.

As far as I can tell the old parking lot snow piles here are now gone. There are still a few parking lot piles from Sundays snow fall but they will soon be gone as well. I work for the local minor league baseball team and the parking lot still has snow from Sunday and of course there are always some players who have not seen snow in the lifetimes come up here and see snow for the first time. While not ever year it has happen several times over the years. when we get s snow fall in April

While not as warm as Chicago it was indeed a nice spring day here in Grand Rapids as the high here was 64° it did turn much cooler just before sun down and it was a cold night last night at the ballpark. But there are now many spring flowers out and the grass is turning greener by the day and it will not be too long before the first cut of spring. Then with all of the rain (and snow) that has and will fall cutting the grass will be a 2 or 3 times a week thing for a while.

We are now half way thru April so now is a good time to see where the major Michigan reporting stations stand so far. Grand Rapids the mean temp 44.7° (-0.3) total precip 2.50” (1.56 is average) snow fall 4.8” (1.4” would be average) the highest so far this month is 74 and the lowest 19. For other Michigan locations. Departures or averages are in ( ) Muskegon Mean 43.8 (+0.1) precip 1.86” (1.45) snow fall 7.8” (1.9) Lansing mean 44.5 (+0.3) precip 1.34” (1.52) snow fall 1.5” (1.4) Detroit mean 47.5 (+1.1) precip 1.34 (1.43) snow fall trace (1.3) Flint mean 44.4 (+0.8) precip 0.92 (1.44) snow fall 2.1” (1.3) Saginaw mean 44.0 (+0.9) precip 0.85 (1.39) snow fall 2.1” (1.3) Alpena mean 38.4 (-0.1) precip 1.82 (1.22) snow fall 10.1 (4.1) snow on the ground 5” The Sault mean 34.7 (-2.0) precip 2.41 snow fall 2.5 (4.5) snow on the ground 15” Marquette mean 31.4 (-2.6) precip 2.43” (1.50) snow fall 8.6” (9.3) snow on the ground 18”

Yesterdays snow fall here at Grand Rapids set a new record for April 14th with 4.1" and at Muskegon it was a record 6.7" Here at my house 14 miles NW of GRR I recorded 5.3" and there is now 4.5" on the ground here. With the snow fall the season total now at Grand Rapids is now at 81.2" not bad for the big snow free spell in December into mid January.

Still getting moderate snow here at this time now have 4.1" on the ground and yes it is still windy with snow and now blowing snow the temp here is now at 31

I now have 2.5" of snow on the ground here at my house the temperature is still at 33 so this is a very wet snow to say the least. Still getting moderate to almost heavy snow fall at this time. This is a lot of snow to fall during the day in mid April. And it is still very windy as well.