WEST MICHIGAN — The great weekend weather forecast we have been talking about for several days holds in tact! Expect abundant sunshine and high temperatures in the upper 70s for many of us today. Immediate lakeshore communities will land a bit cooler around 70 to the lower 70s with fairly breezy northwest winds off of the Lake Michigan waters keeping things a bit cooler for you folks.
Expect a quiet evening and overnight tonight with readings dropping a bit more so than the previous overnight. Lows will be in the lower half of the 50s by daybreak Sunday morning. Sunday looks to bring a few more clouds versus Saturday but overall a good deal of sunshine will be seen and comparable temperatures in the upper 70s will be achieved. Locations along the lakeshore shake out basically just as warm as inland locales with winds remaining quite light and any cooling influence therefore remaining limited.
A ridge of high pressure builds in on Monday minimizing any cloud production and maximizing out warming potential. With Tropical Storm / Depression Cristobal approaching from the Deep South, the sinking motion on the periphery of the system will aid in the warming process on Monday. The mercury takes aim on the upper 80s. Humidity actually stays pretty reasonable.
Tuesday opens up with abundant sunshine but the high clouds from the remnants of Cristobal will start to stream in late morning into the afternoon. A very warm and increasingly humid atmosphere will allow for temperatures to reach to around 90 to the lower 90s by mid-afternoon or so. Clouds will thicken further late afternoon into the evening and the prospect for showers and thunderstorms will go up through the evening.
Tremendous amounts of rain are not currently in the forecast but a brief soaking is a possibility Tuesday evening into early Wednesday morning. Some additional showers will possible Wednesday afternoon but appreciable rain is not likely at that time.
The bigger story for us with this system is likely to be the winds. Some usually reliable models have wind gusts to 40-50+ mph at times from Tuesday evening through the day on Wednesday.
Stay tuned to future forecasts for refinements to the track of the remnants of Cristobal and any changes in the projected strength which could greatly impact the forecast regarding rain amounts and wind.
Along with the windy conditions projected for Wednesday, temperatures will be cooler in the middle 70s. This cooler trend will likely continue into Thursday and Friday with highs on Thursday in the middle 70s and highs on Friday closer to 70 degrees. The cooler weather will likely go into next weekend as well before signs of another warm-up are showing up for that following week.
