GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Grand Rapids set a record low temperature Tuesday morning, with Arctic air forecast to keep control of the region through early Wednesday.
The temperature just after 2:00 A.M. dipped to -9° at the Ford Airport, beating the old record low of -8° set way back in 1966. With winds from the west/southwest, wind chills made it feel more like the teens below zero in G.R.
Further to the south, air temperatures dropping to -10° to -15° caused wind chill readings of -30° or colder south of I-94 at times. Here are some of the morning lows officially recorded around the area:
- Grand Rapids: -9°
- Muskegon: 4°
- Holland: 3°
- Kalamazoo: -13°
- Battle Creek: -11°
- Fremont: -9°
- South Haven: 3°
- Three Rivers: -14°
- Big Rapids: -9°
- Leota (Clare County): -25°
Wind chills will stay below zero throughout the day Tuesday, with air temperatures that likely won’t get back into the double digits until at least midday Wednesday. Some light lake-effect snow flurries may increase a bit in the afternoon and evening, and continue through early Wednesday with accumulations staying at most an inch or two along the lakeshore.
The bitterly cold air does have a couple of interesting side effects — many people in West Michigan reported seeinglight pillars, a phenomenon that made some think there were UFOs coming! And in some areas, rising smoke or steam from houses was hitting a strong temperature inversion just above the surface and flattening out, creating a thin layer of haze just above the rooftops.
As of Monday, Grand Rapids officially measured 18″ of snow on the ground at the airport, a mark that is reached only rarely. The last time it happened was February of 2011; before then, it hadn’t occurred since January of 1999. In fact, this is only the 7th time in the last 50 years that we’ve seen a snow depth 18″ or more:
- January 27-31, 1978
- January 13-30, 1979
- February 12-20, 1985
- January 6-8, 1999
- January 12-15, 1999
- February 2-4, 2011
- January 27-?, 2014
A bit more snow is in the forecast for Thursday; you can see that and the rest of the 7 Day Forecast on the Weather page.
