Yesterday, we had a Winter Weather Advisory from Kent Co. to the south. Today (Thu.) we have a Winter Weather Advisory for the lakeshore counties from Manistee Co. down to Berrien Co. Cass County. The Advisory is for 1-4″ of snow, plus slippery roads and will be in effect until 4 pm for Manistee, Mason, Oceana, Muskegon and Ottawa Counties and until 4 am Friday from Allegan County to the south. .

There is also a Winter Weather Advisory in effect until 4 am Friday for four counties in Indiana (Porter, La Porte, St. Joseph and (western) Elkhart Counties). This is for 3-5″ of new snow and some slippery roads. Visibilities will be reduced at times and you may need a few extra minutes of travel time if you’ll be on I-80, I-90 or I-94.

Expected snowfall today in SW Michigan and N. Indiana.

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Gale Warnings for Friday

Looks like a windy day on Friday with Gale Warnings likely, especially north of Grand Haven. Winds could gust to 35-50 mph. With the wind, more snow will be likely on Friday (1-3″) and over the weekend (2-6″). We’re headed toward a rather cold and snowy pattern.

8-14 Day Temperature Forecast for February 2-8

The latest 8-14 Day Temperature Outlook from the Climate Prediction Center has a lot of blue color – indicating the likelihood of colder than average temperatures, with the cold air centered over the Northern Plains and western Great Lakes. Only the Southeast is expected to be warmer than average.

8-14 Day Precipitation Forecast for February 2-8. The Great Lakes are near average. A couple things to note. Near average precipitation can also be above average snowfall if it’s cold and the precipitation is all snow. Second – with the Great Lakes all open water and a cold pattern, lake-effect snowfall is possible to likely and that means we could have more snow near the lake or in the two-tier counties downwind from Lake Michigan with less snow well inland.

Downtown Holland Wednesday afternoon

CLIMATE UPDATE: The last day that was colder than average in Grand Rapids was Dec. 26th – a month ago. Since then, we’ve had 28 days that have been warmer than average and one day exactly average. The average temperature this month in G.R. has been 34.0°. That’s 2° above freezing – no wonder most lakes don’t have ice on them. That’s also 9.0 degrees warmer than average. The temperature in Grand Rapids only varied by 2° yesterday and 3° the day before. In facte, the temperature in Grand Rapids has been between 27° and 34° since Jan. 20.

The cloud-a-thon continues. Over the last 10 days, Gr. Rapids has had 9 days with 9% sunshine and one day with 2% sunshine – adds up to 11 minutes of sunshine in the last week and a half. I’m taking my vitamin D.

As of midnight, snowfall in Gr. Rapids was 3.0″ on Wednesday. G.R. is up to 4.6″ for the month and 72.2″ for the season. That’s 25.7″ above average-to-date. Kalamazoo got 4.7″ of snow yesterday, bringing them up to 6.2″ for the month and 39.2″ for the season. Lansing had 5.3″ of snow Wednesday. They’ve had 6.1″ for the month and Lansing is up to 32.8″ for the season. That’s 5.6″ above average-to-date. Muskegon reported 3″ of snow yesterday. They’ve had 5.1″ for the month and they’re up to 29.4″ for the season, which is 22.9″ below average-to-date. Again, much of our snow this winter has been lake-effect, with fairly strong wind. That wind blew the heavier snow inland to the US 131 corridor. Less snow fell at the lakeshore.

Snowfall totals from Wednesday across Indiana and the Michigan Counties that border Indiana.

ALSO: NWS Houston can now confirm that the Deer Park/Pasadena tornado will be preliminarily rated EF3, with an estimated maximum path length of 18 mi, maximum path width of 0.66 mi, and maximum wind speed of 140 mph.

Storm Reports from Wednesday

Only one tornado yesterday with minimal damage.

Tornadoes in the U.S. from January 1 – the morning of January 24, 2023

We’ve had a lot of tornadoes this January. So far, SPC has recorded 143 tornadoes in the U.S. Last year we had just 64 in January and February combined.

Wow! Look at the rain (and mountain snow) they’ve had in California over the pasts 5 weeks.

AND: Smithsonian Project: Historical global temperature. Frosty morning in Bushy Park (near London, England). The lowest temperature of Mount Fuji this morning is – 36.1C, which is the lowest temperature in Japan in the 21st century, and can also be ranked as the ninth lowest temperature in Japan. “Staggering cold in China – possibly China’s coldest temperature ever. Crescent moon (above our clouds). And in Arizona: “I’ve seen my fair share of climatologically rare things, but this might be the rarest: a few flakes of snow fell in the Queen Creek area this past Monday. In 125 years of record keeping, it has only snowed 4 times here.” Lightning in Brazil. Porta potty tipped by thunderstorm. Windmill at sunset. Sunset at Stonehenge. Green comet. Really cold in N. Africa. Nice sunrise. Owl’s well that ends well!