What a great weekend for BalloonFest in Wayland, Michigan – the average wind speed in Grand Rapids on Saturday was 1.9 mph – making it the calmest day in Grand Rapids so far in 2023 (pic. from Marie Steffen). Sunday, the wind was even calmer, with an average wind speed of 1.7 mph.

The last day that was this calm in Grand Rapids was December 11, 2022 when the average wind speed was 1.6 mph.

The windiest day of the year so far has been February 15, when we had an average wind speed midnight-to-midnight of 20.3 mph and a peak gust of 56 mph.

Other average wind speeds on Saturday: Kalamazoo 2.3 mph, Lansing 2.5 mph, Holland (airport) 2.7 mph, Jackson 3.3 mph and Muskegon (airport) 5.7 mph.

It was windier at the lakeshore. The wind at 2 pm in the afternoon at the Muskegon lighthouse was 13.0 mph and at the S. Haven Lighthouse, the wind at 8 pm was 15.2 mph.

South Haven buoy – looking west before sunset
Record of Wave Height at the S. Haven buoy over the last week

The graph above shows wave height at the S. Haven buoy over the past week. Waves peaked around 8 feet early Thursday AM. Yesterday waves were running 1.2 feet at the buoy. Early Sunday AM (10th), the water temp. at the buoy was 71.

We had our first below freezing temperatures of the season in the U.P. Saturday morning. Spincich Lake plummeted to a low of 30 degrees and Doe Lake reached 31.

While Grand Rapids had a low of 51, it was much cooler to the north. Both Manistee and Baldwin dipped to 38.

Both Saturday morning and this Sunday morning we had patchy fog.

ALSO: Nice lightning strike in Dallas. Nice satellite loop.