WEST MICHIGAN — Easter Sunday this year will feature sunshine and warmth. Temperatures are set to rise to the 60s, with high pressure bringing sunshine to all of West Michigan. Communities will heat up to the 50s by noon, and ultimately reach highs in the 60s by this evening.
When it comes to Easter past climate data, our historic high temperature on record was 82 degrees in 1976. Easter's historic low was 21 degrees set back in 1940.
The rainiest Easter on record was in 1973, with 1.32 inches of rain. And the snowiest Easter was in 1920 with 2.5 inches of snow.
Although Easter doesn't always fall on April 9, there are a few weather phenomena that have happened on this date.
In 1969 a brief tornado damaged a house near Loomis in Isabella County. In 1973 a snowstorm dumped 3 to 8 inches of snow across much of Lower Michigan. It rang in as record snowfall in Muskegon at 6.5 inches and 4.4 inches in Grand Rapids. And lastly, April 9 in 2008 a tornado hit from near Plainwell in Allegan County to Doster in Barry County in the middle of the night. It damaged a horse barn, lifted a trailer adjacent to the barn, damaged gravel yard equipment and uprooted large trees.
This year we can expect conditions to quiet and mild. Happy Easter!