We had 99% sunshine over the weekend. So far this month, Grand Rapids has had 58.5% sunshine. From Nov. 30 – Jan. 31 (63 days), we had just 11% of possible sunshine. Temperatures reached the mid-upper 40s and that’s 10-15 degrees warmer than average. Five of the last six days we’ve had high temperatures in the mid-upper 40s. Except for the piles, the snow is pretty much gone. should see some sunshine over the weekend.

We had a daily record 1.10″ of rain on Feb. 9th. The other 11 days of February have brought us 0.05″ of precipitation combined.

This has been a breezy month. The average wind speed this month has been 11.5 mph. The average wind speed in January was 9.1 mph, so February has been a windier month. That trend will continue. We have Small Craft Advisories in effect for Lake Michigan today. Then that moves to a Gale Watch from this evening through Wednesday afternoon. That’s for wind gusts of 35-40 mph and waves up to 6-11 feet. This is going to be a relatively windy week here in Michigan.

Last Thursday, the high temperatures were quite variable with low pressure coming right over West Michigan. The warm air got into areas south of Kent Co. While Grand Rapids had a high of 43, the thermometer reached 55 degrees in Kalamazoo (a record high temp.) and 59 in Jackson. The high was 36 in Big Rapids and 34 in Cadillac. 3″ of snow fell near Traverse City. Here’s peak wind gusts in northern Indiana and northern Ohio.

I’m back in West Michigan, after spending much of last week in Nassau, Bahamas. In Nassau today (Mon.) the run rises to an angle of 54 degrees above the southern horizon at solar noon. Today in Grand Rapids, the sun rises to an angle of 34 degrees above the southern horizon at solar noon. The sun rises to an angle of 54 degrees above the southern horizon on April 7th.

The sun is just as high in the sky at 9:35 AM in Nassau as it is at solar noon in Grand Rapids (which is at 12:24 pm).