The forecast stays clear of severe weather for at least the next week, but it is still Severe Weather Awareness Week for the state of Michigan.
The week's daily 'themes' include:
April 2010 Archives
Doppler Radar image of meteor trail over southwest Wisconsin at 11:02 PM EDT, Wednesday, April 14 - National Weather Service Forecast Office Davenport, IA
A brilliant, exploding meteor called a "bolide" lit up the skies across much of the upper Midwest late Wednesday evening. Sightings of the fireball extended as far east as Michigan and as far west as North and South Dakota. A number of building cameras and even a police car dashcam captured the object as it streaked across the sky and exploded somewhere above southwest Wisconsin. This particular radar image shows the debris trail left by the meteor when it was around 24,000 feet above ground level. A number of witnesses near the entry site reported bright flashes of green and white light accompanied by a series of sonic booms.
Meteor scientists estimate the object was made up of asteroid material and was about one yard in diameter. It is very likely that some of the space invading debris reached the ground after the parent object exploded. If recovered, any fragments would be referred to as meteorites.
Hail damage from Monday night's severe storm in southern Kalamazoo County - Photo by Jim Gobles
We can say goodbye to our early spring/summer weather (SPRUMMER). It was a week ago that we enjoyed sunny skies and record high temperatures in the lower 80s. The first severe storms of the spring pounded portions of southern Lower Michigan on Monday night. One of the hardest hit areas was in southern Kalamazoo County near and south of Schoolcraft and Vicksburg where hail up to 2 inches in diameter and wind gusts over 70 mph caused significant damage. We can look forward to temperatures being some 40 degrees colder this Thursday afternoon from what they were a week ago and it is not impossible that scattered light rain showers could be mixed with a few wet snow flakes!
A sure sign of spring is the emergence of the frogs and their nighttime mating chorus throughout the woods and wetlands of
Because it generally only happens once or twice a year, it's valuable to review what a "Fire Weather Watch" and "Red Flag Warning" mean. Essentially, a Red Flag Warning is more appropriately termed a "Fire Weather Warning."
It's especially important to remember given the fact that we still have a lot of very dry leaves, branches, etc. since things haven't "greened up" around the area yet.
We also have been very dry. Grand Rapids saw less than half the average rainfall for the month of March, and no measurable precipitation since March 20.
Here are the criteria:
- Temperature above 75°
- Humidity less than 25%
- Winds (or frequent gusts) above 20 mph (measured at airport sites, 10 meters above the surface)
Since Sunday, there were at least 6 wildfires or prescribed burns reported in the Manistee National Forest in Newaygo County. Here is the link for recent wildfire reports from that area.
