Today is June 8th and it is the anniversary of the biggest tornado in Michigan history. When I was a young kid growing up in Bay City area each year we used to listen to and watch the Flint radio and TV stations and each year there was always a reminder of the big Coldwater Road tornado. The Flint stations called it the Coldwater Beecher tornado. One of the nation's most devastating natural disasters occurred in the Flint, Michigan's Beecher district on Monday, June 8th, 1953, resulting in 116 deaths and injuring 844. In a 2000 National Weather Service poll, both the general public, and area "weather experts" voted the Flint-Beecher Tornado as the worst natural disaster in the state of Michigan in the 20th century. This was the deadliest tornado in Michigan history and the 10th deadliest in United States history. The tornado was one of eight tornadoes that touched down the same day in eastern lower Michigan and northwest Ohio. Just prior to the tornado touching down eyewitness accounts recalled that an approaching thunderstorm with several intense lightning strikes turned the northwest sky a dark "black-yellow-green" color. Flint observations that evening recorded a temperature of 78 °F with a dew point of 71 °F and a barometric pressure reading that fell to 28.89. Surface map analysis showed a frontal system associated with a strong low pressure moving west across lower Michigan. At approximately 8:30 p.m. the tornado touched down near the intersection of Webster and Coldwater Roads. The tornado resulted in 116 fatalities and 844 injuries There were 340 homes completely destroyed, 107 had major damage and another 153 had relatively minor damage. It was half a mile wide. It stayed on the ground for 27 miles. The forward speed of the tornado was 35 mph. The only other F5 tornado in Michigan history was the Hudsonville-Standale Tornado of April 3, 1956. The last F4 tornado in Michigan was the Kalamazoo County to Eaton County twister of April 2, 1977. The weather on June 8th 1953 in southern lower Michigan the H/L at Flint that day was 82/49 with just 0.07” of rain. To the north at Saginaw it was 86/48 with just 0.06” of rain to the south at Detroit it was 83/53 with 0.05” of rain. In our area the H/L here in Grand Rapids was 85/56 with 0.28” of rain and in Lansing it was 82/54 and 0.30” of rain so it looks like there was more rain here in west Michigan from the storms than to the east. The official H/L yesterday was 71/56 there was a trace of rainfall it was yet another windy day with the highest wind of 43 MPH out of the W. There was 59% of possible sunshine. For today the average H/L is 78/56 the record high of 97 was set in 1933 the record low of 38 was set in 1949 and 1998. The coldest high of 58 was set in 1924 and the warmest low of 75 was set in 2011. The record rainfall of 2.32” fell in 1974. Last year the H/L was 77/40. We now have 7 days in the record books for June 2024 and the mean so far is 67.5 for a departure of +1.8. the highest so far is 84 and the lowest so far is 52 (note I have 50 at the current time) The total rainfall of just 0.42” is a departure of -0.50”

I think we should go after a few Democrats that committed very serious crimes. I'm certainly against making up crimes or using obscure 200 year old laws to ruin someone's life like they did with Flynn. To me the whole Flynn thing glaringly advertised how ruthless these people were going to be against anyone that had anything to do with Trump. I hope you are planning to vote third party. I absolutely could never bring myself to vote for Biden.

Fetterman has pleasantly surprised me for sure. Sinema in Arizona as well. I'm sure you also heard that Joe Manchin finally told the Democrats to go pound sand.

I'm still pretty much in the heat will eventually come camp, but I have to say there is something a bit different about this year. It would be really foolish to predict a cool August in light of that month's performance this century so far, however.

I love kitties! My wife and I are firm believers in allowing them to be indoor / outdoor cats. They are so much happier that way. We have had a couple of cats that are very good at catching moles which is obviously a gigantic bonus.