The pic. above is the South Haven Channel late Thursday. Look how calm the water is. The average wind speed Thursday in Gr. Rapids was just 3.1 mph. That tied April 14 for calmest day of 2023.
From noon – 10:30 pm, the Port Sheldon buoy reported winds of 0-4 mph. At 4 pm, not only was the wind calm, but the peak gust was 0.0 mph. Same story at the South Haven buoy with a calm peak wind gust at 2pm.
It was cooler at the lake. While Grand Rapids had an afternoon high temperature of 64, the temperature at the South Haven buoy at 3 pm was 49.3 – with a water temp. of 43.5.
The pic. above taken from lighthouse at Michigan City, Indiana shows 3 boats and a sunny, calm day.
Thursday was the 13th day in a row with below average temperatures in Grand Rapids Mi. With the pattern changing and warmer temperatures on the way – many (most?) areas are probably done with below freezing temperatures. The usual cold spots (Leota, Baldwin) where it typically gets 5-8 degrees colder than Grand Rapids on a calm, clear night could still see frost.
With the cool pattern we’ve missed the big thunderstorms the past two weeks. They have stayed closer to the warm, humid air in the Southern U.S. That is likely to change as the pattern warms into the 2nd and 3rd weeks of May.
Speaking of storms…did you see that there were two tornadoes Thursday morning in Compton, California? The NWS said: “Two tornadoes occurred this morning in the Carson/Compton area, just a few miles apart and within 10 to 15 minutes of each other. Based on the damage, the tornadoes were both rated EF0.”
One tornado had peak winds of 65 mph and the other 75 mph.
A tornado toppled trees in La Mirada on Feb. 23 and on March 22, an EF1 tornado with winds of 110 mph touched down in Montebello, causing more extensive property damage. It was the first EF1 to hit the L.A. area since 1998, according to NWS.
The Los Angeles area was also drenched by over two feet of measurable rainfall this past winter and early spring, causing mudslides, landslides and widespread street flooding.
Mammoth Mt., California added another 7″ of snow in the last 72 hours. That brings their all-time record season snowfall this winter to 712″. The base is still at 182″ (more than 15 feet).
Herman, Michigan in the U.P. had 4″ of snow on 4/30, 13″ of snow on 5/1 27″ of snow on 5/2 and 8″ of snow on 5/3. That’s 52″ of snow in 4 days. The snow depth was 4″ on 4/30, 12″ on 5/1, 30″ on 5/2 and 32″ on 5/3 and 22″ on 5/4.
Believe it or not, the 27″ of snow in one day wasn’t an all-time record for Herman MI. The all-time 24-snowfall record for Herman is 30″ on 12/19/1996.
Since 1968, the warmest temperature ever in Herman has been 96 and the coldest -40.
I’ve been to Herman MI, It was decades ago. I tracked down the weather observer. If I remember right, his name was Leonard Lahti.
Venus is the bright star in the west in the evening right now.
