We now have the first 7 days of May 2026 in the record books and the mean for May so far is a chilly 48.1. That is more like April where the mean over the last 30 years is 47.5. 6 of the 7 days were below average with 3 being more that 10° below average. 5 of the 7 nights have had low in the 30’s The high so far is 76 and the low is 33. It has been one of the coldest starts in the last 25 years. The overnight low here in my yard is the current temperature of 34 and there is some light frost. The next 7 days look to continue to be very cool for May with several more chances of frost. There could be some showers on Tuesday. It would be best to hold off on any frost sensitive plants until at least late in the month. The official H/L yesterday at Grand Rapids was 55/37 there was no rainfall the highest wind gust was 37 MPH out of the W. There were no significant weather events. For today the average H/L is 67/46 the record high of 89 was in 1926 the coldest high of 41 was in 1947 the record low of 27 was in 1976 the warmest low of 67 was in 1936. The most rainfall of 1.50” was in 1901. Some weather history for May 8th 1981 The Dallas/Fort Worth area experienced its worst hailstorm of record as baseball to grapefruit size hail, accompanied by 100 mph winds, caused nearly 200 million dollars damage. Hail accumulated eight inches deep at Cedar Hill TX. (The Weather Channel)Here in Michigan 1976 A freeze hits Lower Michigan with Grand Rapids and Muskegon setting record lows of 27 degrees.

Just learned in a Jon Bois video of all places that the same low pressure system that would eventually form into the legendary Armistice Day Blizzard, was the same storm that toppled the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Small world

Dang will we ever see 80F again

The 00z Euro has a trough of similar tilt and position next week to the September 2019 outbreak, with diffluence under SSW flow. The only differences are that it's a little bit cooler aloft and the trough in question is more cut off with actual negative tilting. This warm core threat has run to run support across different models, though with some inconsistency Sept 2019 was interesting in that it was a warm core outbreak ahead of an - albeit barely - positively tilted trough.

Our latest stops have been Tunis, Catania/Taormina, and then we left Italy and had our first stop in Greece in Katakolo/Olympia. Taormina, Sicily was a highlight of our trip so far. It was very cute and charming with magnificent views and some of the best pizza we've ever had. Olympia, Greece was also a wonderful time. We are big fans of the Olympics and it was so interesting learning about the first Olympic games held in Greece back in 776 BC. We also stopped at a family-ran Greek winery and had amazing homemade food and delicious wines. Today we are in Monemvasia, Greece and tomorrow we head to Santorini before wrapping up our trip in Ephesus, Turkey and Athens!