WEST MICHIGAN- It's no secret that we haven't seen much rain over the last few weeks. All you have to do is look as the unwatered lawns and gardens to know that's the case.
This is a picture of my lawn on the northeast side of Grand Rapids.....pretty barren! (OK, not really.) But the fact that we actually need the rain is without a doubt. The rain gauge at Gerald R. Ford airport in Grand Rapids received just over an inch of rain during the month of July, making it one of the driest in the last 10 years.
We'll try to start off August on a drier note, with scattered showers and thunderstorms possible Wednesday afternoon. While not everyone will receive rain in the afternoon, there will be a few lawns and gardens that won't need to be watered.
Our better chance for widespread rain comes in the form of a cold front that arrives Thursday night into Friday. First of all, look how much cooler the air is behind this front! Temps in the upper Midwest will struggle to get to the 60s in many locations! That's where I think we're at for Friday, with a few spots barely reaching 70 degrees by the afternoon. Scattered showers develop in the afternoon, with more of a widespread rain overnight.
Don't be shy to water your lawn until then! Many locations still won't receive rain Wednesday. Projected rainfall totals through the end of the rain Friday look somewhere between 1/2 inch to an inch of rain.
