August was cooler, drier and cloudier than average in Gr. Rapids. The month ended 1.8° cooler than average in Grand Rapids. The average temperature was slightly (less than 1 degree) cooler than average in Lansing and slightly warmer than average in Kalamazoo and Muskegon.
The highest temperature in G.R. was 91° on the 23rd and 24th. The coolest was 47° on the 31st. We had 2 days in the low 90s, 9 days with high temperatures in the 80s, 19 days in the 70s and one day with a high of just 65° (the 6th – and that was a record lowest high temperature for the date.
Rainfall was below average in Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Kalamazoo and above average in Lansing. The wettest day at the G.R. airport was the 14th with 1.22″.
Grand Rapids had 56% of possible sunshine in August, a bit below average. The average wind speed was 7.9 mph and the peak gust of wind at the G.R. Airport was 49 mph on the 24th. That evening, Lansing had a peak gust of 71 mph (airport) and much of the central part of Kent County, Ionia County, Eaton County and Ingham Co. had peak winds of 55-75 mph.
The big weather story of the month was the severe weather on the evening of August 24. A strong EF1 tornado touched down in Alpine Township just east of Peach Ridge Ave. It remained on the ground for nearly 9 miles and did millions of dollars in damage. It took several days to get power restored in S. Lower Michigan. Approximately 460,000 customers lost power in the storms that evening,
For the three summer months (June, July and August combined), the average temperature (day and night) was 70.0°. That was 0.9° cooler than average. This was the coolest summer since 2017. G.R. had 10.39″ of rain. That was 0.96″ below average. Sunshine totaled 58% (avg. is 62%). The average wind speed was 7.3 mph. The fastest gust of wind was 49 mph on August 24. The average relative humidity was 69%.
There were 20 days when we could see lightning and/or hear thunder. There were 4 days with heavy fog for at least one hour.
The September Forecast from the Climate Prediction Center calls for warmer than average temperatures for much of the Lower 48 states, including the state of Michigan.
Drier than average conditions are likely for much of the Central U.S. with wetter than average weather continuing in much of the West.
