WEST MICHIGAN — After two fantastic weather days around West Michigan, cooler conditions have built in for today. The light showers from this morning wind down early this afternoon but clouds hang tough thereafter. Max temperatures only get back to around 50 degrees. A touch of sun may emerge this evening before a sundown at 8:12.
Skies clear out tonight and temperatures drop off to chilly levels in the lower 30s. Expect a cold start to Sunday.
The good news, though, is that near unlimited sunshine is to be in full force for the back half of the weekend helping to boost temperatures into the middle to potentially upper 50s by day's end.
A look out into this coming week shows a few possible time frames for wet weather. The first comes Monday afternoon into Monday evening with a weak disturbance moving nearby the region. Recent runs of the models bring the chance for a few scattered showers but nothing too important looks to occur. Most indications keep the bulk of the activity just to the south and west of the state of Michigan. Highs on Monday land near 60 degrees.
The next opportunity for rain arrives Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday evening when another disturbance rides in and looks to take more direct aim on our region. Thus a better chance for showers will likely be with us at this time. The air mass is likely to be warmer as well with high temperatures in the low to mid 60s. Therefore, instability levels will be high enough to introduce the risk for a few thunderstorms.
Behind this weather maker, much of Wednesday appears to shake out dry and fairly warm with highs back into the lower half of the 60s. A third impulse/disturbance and associated cold front will push through during the evening hours offering up a new chance for showers into early Thursday morning.
Anticipate a much cooler phase for Thursday and Friday with highs potentially only making it into the mid 40s. The cooler than normal spell is likely to go into next weekend as well. Average highs by next weekend will be in the middle 50s. In fact, the long range maps are keeping cooler than average temperatures a frequent thing right on into week two of the forecast.
