When I moved here in April of this year from the warm desert climate of Arizona, I was bombarded with comments like “Michigan is the total opposite of the desert” and “Hope you packed your warm winter clothes. You don’t know what you’re in for!” Truthfully, that was probably what I expected anyway. Growing up in Missouri most of my life, I know what cold feels like, I just forgot. Starting off this month, it seems like Mother Nature doesn’t really care to remind me, either.
Temperatures this December haven’t exactly been what could be classified as “cold” at any point. Factoring in the first 8 days of this month, we’re already a whopping 5 degrees above average! That trend will only continue, and it was really illustrated with today starting out this morning.
Low temperatures this morning were greater than the normal HIGHS usually are for this day. Normal highs this time of year run at 36 degrees, where as average lows are 23 degrees!
The warmer trend shows absolutely no signs of stopping. The coldest air remains well to the north of the international border over the next 7-10 days. As a result, it seems that our temperatures will continue their above average nature of the next several days.
We’ll highlight three days leading into the weekend. Forecast temperatures get very close and even match 60 degrees by Sunday. You may wonder why our temperatures will be so warm, even though we’ve got rain and clouds in the forecast?
A warm front will allow our temperatures to soar overnight Friday into Saturday. We’ll stay in the 50s near 60 for most of the weekend until that attached cold front arrives. Even with the colder air, it still looks like we’ll be above average to begin next week, with highs in the lower 40s!
As a result, the NOAA Climate Prediction Center has Michigan under a bullseye for above normal temperatures almost all the way until Christmas. Will this mean that there is absolutely a ZERO percent chance we won’t see a white Christmas this year? Probably not zero, but it’s not very high, that’s for sure. The lake is still very warm and so is the ground. Prolonged amounts of cold air are just not expected anytime soon in West Michigan. I’ll keep you posted on any new developments and record breaking. For now, have a great Wednesday!
Garry
