Partly to Mostly Sunny Weekend

Band of showers and t-storms moves through Monday night

This is a webcam grab of Centennial Park in Holland around 2:30 am this Saturday. LOTS of tulips in bloom now, literally over a million blooming in Holland right now. The blossoms are out on the ornamental pear trees downtown and we’re counting down the days until Tulip Time. There are two big parades now at Tulip Time…the Children’s Parade on Thursday and the Music Parade on Saturday (2 pm).

So far, April is averaging 5.2 degrees warmer than average. We’ve had 16 days that have been warmer than average, 7 days that have been cooler than average and one day that was exactly average.

Here’s a cool pic. The sun is setting at Michigan City, Indiana. You can see the skyline of the city of Chicago to the left of the sun. Those skyscrapers are 40 miles away.

The record high temperature today is 86 and that occurred back in 1915. The record low temperature was 22 in 1967 (the year we had the big blizzard on Jan. 26. Sunrise today is at 6:43 am and sunset at 8:37 pm. We’re approaching 14 hours of daylight. The average high temperature for Grand Rapids is up to 62 and the average low is 41.

This should be a nice weekend. We’ll become partly to mostly sunny today and stay mostly sunny on Sunday. Here’s a map showing forecast high temperatures today with mid 60s inland and mid 50s along the lakeshore where the north wind will be coming over the cool water of Lake Michigan. So, the shore at S. Haven and Benton Harbor will be about 10 degrees cooler than inland areas like Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo.

Temperatures should be similar on Sunday. The weather should be very good for the Kalamazoo Marathon…dry with temperatures in the mid 40s at sunrise, mid 50s when most of the runners are finishing.

I have never run a marathon. I did some 5Ks and one 10K (when I finished next to last). My daughter #1 has run a few marathons. I believe she was there for the infamous Chicago Marathon of Oct. 7, 2007. There were record high temperatures in the upper 80s that day and the race had to be cancelled when too many participants experienced dehydration. A total of 315 runners were treated at hospitals and medical tents that day.

Here’s 3-day rainfall (Sat. - Mon.). Some significant rain in the Midwest, Lower Mississippi Valley and along the Mid-Atlantic. A period of rain is possible in San Diego and across Nevada, which is the driest state in the U.S.

This is a 3-day total rainfall graphic. So, today it’s Saturday - Monday. We know Saturday and Sunday will be dry. Most all of Monday will be dry, but probably after sunset a band of showers and thunderstorms will move in from the west. This graphic counts the start of that rain and gives Grand Rapids 0.03”. Now the European model gives Grand Rapids 1/3rd inch of rain from sunset Monday into early Tuesday. That’s not enough to have much affect on area rivers. So far this month, Grand Rapids has had 7.19” of rain and that’s 4.15” above average.

Rainfall was meager on Friday, with 0.12” of rain officially in Grand Rapids. Just a trace of rain fell in Muskegon, Kalamazoo and Battle Creek. Jackson had 0.30” of rain and they had a 52 mph wind gust.

Here’s the Severe Weather Outlook Map for today (Saturday). There is a level 4 (moderate risk, red color on the map) for SE Oklahoma. No thunderstorms in Michigan this week.

This is the Severe Weather Outlook Map for Monday. It looks like another big day of severe weather, with a large level 3 Enhance Risk area centered on Illinois. Again, tornadoes are possible, scattered wind damage is likely. Storms should be weakening as they cross Lake Michigan well after sunset.

Have a great weekend and thanks for reading my blog.

The latest 8-14 day temperature outlook continues to forecast cooler than average temperatures over the Great Lakes and Northeast. Keep in mind that this is a 7-day average…it may be cooler than average at the beginning of the period, but starting to trend to warm toward the end of the 7 days. Nevertheless, I’d continue to hold off planting anything frost sensitive.