A rare early November tornado hit the Hampshire area of SE England around lunchtime on Tuesday, Nov. 3rd.  The twister knocked down dozens of trees, tore the roof off several buildings and downed power lines.  At least two injuries were reported.  The tornado’s path appears to be several miles long.  The entire United Kingdom gets about 35 tornadoes per year.  Most are small and do little damage.  On July 28, 2005 a tornado rated EF2 caused 30 injuries in Birmingham.   This has been a quiet year for severe weather in the U.S.  There were only 10 reported tornadoes in the entire country in September, compared to 111 in Sept. 2008.  There has been only one tornado fatality in the U.S. since May 13th.  Of the 22 fatalities in the U.S. this year, 12 of the victims (more than half) were in mobile homes.

Click the graphics twice to enlarge.  The month of October (which was the 2nd wettest in Grand  Rapids) was the 3rd  coldest for the U.S. since records began in 1895.  The only state with temperatures that were warmer than normal was Florida.  The second graph shows October temperature for the U.S. since 1895.  Side Note:   Carbon Dioxide has been increasing steadily since the 1940s.  If CO2 was the primary or a primary driver of temperature, what would you expect the graph to show for temperatures over the past 70 years?  Final note:  Some severe weather in Australia…golfball-sized hail and lightning caused a roof to cave in (minor injuries) near Brisbane.

<–Aniyah Randall has found the Great Pumpkins! (from POSTED).  It should be a warm weekend, with highs a good 10 degrees warmer than average.  A north-south band of clouds (see visible satellite in daytime, infrared at night) was smack dab over West Michigan for much of Friday (bad timing).  We did see a little sun in the late afternoon, esp. southwest of G.R.  I did say last night that the most sun would be in Berrien Co. and that’s been about the only spot that’s had a lot of sun today.  Temperatures were about 5 deg. warmer from Holland south along the lake Friday afternoon.  Readings were in the mid 60s south of Chicago – low 70s as close as Springfield, IL.   We’re going to be in an overall dry and mild pattern through next week.  I don’t see any real cold air here for the next 10 days and maybe not until after Thanksgiving.  There is a lot of cold air in northern Canada.  In fact – Thompson, Manitoba was -13 Thursday morning and they are only about 150 miles north of Lake Winnipeg.  Churchill, Manitoba hasn’t been warmer than 18 this week (which is 8 deg. below normal so far).  Alert’s average temperature this week is at -8.2F with a low of -26F.   There is a fair amount of snow cover in northern Canada and ice is already starting to form in Hudson Bay.  Moosinee at the south end of James Bay was +10 Friday morning (it was 18 in Big Rapids, 15 at Leota which is just north of Mt. Pleasant and I had ice on my birdbaths Friday AM).  the cold air is biding it’s time and when it breaks loose, we’ll be in for an extended stretch of cold weather and lake-effect snow.  Siberia is REALLY cold.  Verkoyansk had a HIGH of -38 Thursday.  There is a MONSTER low in the Gulf of Alaska…waves to 35 feet at one buoy with winds as high as 60 knots (69 mph).   Tropical Storm Ida is brushing Nicaragua and then the Yucatan and bring some heavy rain to Louisiana early next week.

A very wide vareity of new movies to pick from this week….

New at Theaters (Friday): “The Box”, “A Christmas Carol” (3D & IMAX), “The Fourth Kind”, “Men Who Stare at Goats”, “More Than A Game” (limited), “Big Fan” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon), “September Issue” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon), “No Impact Man” (UICA in Grand Rapids), “The Way We Get By” (UICA in Grand Rapids)

Limited Release in Grand Rapids market: 
“More Than A Game” (Celebration! North),
“Big Fan” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon),
“September Issue” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon),
“No Impact Man” (UICA in Grand Rapids),
“The Way We Get By” (UICA in Grand Rapids)

Moving to Woodland Mall this week ($4.00 shows): “Whip It”, “Inglorious Basterds”, “Capitalism: A Love Story”, “Shorts”, “Sorority Row”

Best Bet(s): I have not seen any of the new movies in wide release YET…  but at least two of the four are getting moderate-to-average reviews (”A Christmas Carol” and “Men Who Stare at Goats”). “Big Fan” is getting some good response and it plays in Muskegon for a week and then will be at the UICA on 11/20.   And for $4.00, the filmed in Michigan comedy-drama “Whip It”  is more than worth the price of admission… so is “500 Days of Summer”… go see that if you haven’t already for gosh sakes!

 CLICK HERE TO FIND A MOVIE SHOWTIME

New this Week on DVD: “Aliens in the Attic”, “The Answer Man”, “Food, Inc.”, “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra”, “I Love You Beth Cooper”,  “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″, “Command Performance”

Best Bets: The Waterfront Film Festival alum “The Answer Man” is a fun laugh out loud romantic comedy starring Michigan native Jeff Daniels… the thriller remake “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ that I liked but many others weren’t impressed by… and if you were a fan of the 1980s “G.I. Joe” cartoons or like over-the-top action movies  “G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” is for you (I liked it for what it was).   You’re on your own for: “Food, Inc.” an eye-opening documentary, “Aliens in the Attic” is a family adventure, fans of Hayden Pannetiere (”Heroes”) might like “I Love You Beth Cooper” which actually got some good reviews, and fans of Dolph Lundgren might consider “Command Performance”.

Next Week at Theaters: “2012″, “Pirate Radio”, “Act of God” (UICA in Grand Rapids), “World’s Greatest Dad” (The Harbor Theater in Muskegon)

11/25 – “A Serious Man” (limited)

Next Week on DVD: “Up”, “The Accidental Husband”, “The Merry Gentleman”, “Spread”, “The Ugly Truth”, “Watchmen” (Director’s cut)

MY REVIEWS OF OTHER MOVIES CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS OR AVAILABLE TO RENT/BUY: 

Playing at West Michigan movie theaters:
“500 Days of Summer” (9.5 / 10)
“District 9″ (9.0 / 10)
“The Hurt Locker” (8.9/ 10)
“Star Trek” (8.5 / 10)
“Paranormal Activity” (8.5 / 10)
“The Hangover” (8.0 / 10)
“Where The Wild Things Are” (7.9 / 10)
“Angels & Demons” (8.5 / 10) – on DVD 11/24
“Whip It” (7.9 / 10)
“Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” (7.5 / 10)
“Couples Retreat” (7.5 / 10)
“Weather Girl” (7.5 / 10)
“Four Christmases”  (7.5 / 10) – on DVD 11/24
“Law Abiding Citizen” (7.5 / 10)
“The Ugly Truth” (7.5 / 10)
“This Is It” (7.0 / 10)
“Extract” (6.5 /10)
“Surrogates” (6.5 / 10)
“Love Happens” (7.0* review deferred to my wife)
“All About Steve” (5.5 / 10)

- – -

Available to rent or buy:
“Slumdog Millionaire” (9.5/ 10)
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (9.5 / 10)
“The Dark Knight” (9.5 / 10)
“Changeling”  (9.5 / 10)
“WALL-E” (9.0)
“Pride and Glory” (9.0 / 10)
“The Wrestler” (8.9 / 10)
“Righteous Kill” (8.9 / 10)
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”  (8.9 / 10)
“Eagle Eye” (8.5 / 10)
“Burn After Reading” (8.5 / 10)
“The Answer Man” (8.5 / 10)
“Wanted” (8.0 / 10)
“Defiance” (8.0 / 10)
“I Love You, Man” (8.0/ 10)
“The Proposal” (8.0 /10)
“State of Play” (8.0 / 10)
“The Visitor” (8.0 / 10)
“The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3″ (8.0/ 10)
“Australia”  (7.9 / 10)
“Frozen River” (7.9 / 10)
“Revolutionary Road” (7.9 / 10)
“New in Town” (7.9 / 10)
“Felon” (7.9 / 10)
“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” (7.5 / 10)
“Quantum of Solace”  (7.5 / 10)
“Taken” (7.5 / 10)
“G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra” (7.5 / 10)
“The Air I Breathe” 
“Hancock” 
“Fanboys” (8.5 for me, adjusted to 7.5 for most)
“Traitor” (7.5 / 10)
“The Bank Job” 
“He’s Just Not That Into You” (7.5 / 10)
“The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”
“Role Models” (7.5 / 10)
“The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” (7.5 / 10 )
“Marley & Me” (7.5 / 10)
“Bride Wars” (7.5 / 10)
“The Women” (7.5 / 10)
“Rachel Getting Married” (7.0)
“Paul Blart: Mall Cop” (7.0 / 10)
“Get Smart” (7.0 / 10)
“The Happening” 
“Bedtime Stories” (7.0 / 10)
“Twilight”  (7.0 / 10)
“Knowing” (7.0 / 10)
“Watchmen” (7.0 / 10)
“Funny Games” 
“Nights in Rodanthe” (7.0 / 10)
“Hotel for Dogs” (7.0 / 10)
“Forgetting Sarah Marshall” (6.9 / 10)
“Appaloosa” (6.9 / 10)
“Surveillance” (6.9 / 10)
“Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” 
“The Invasion” 
“What Just Happened” (6.5 / 10)
“Hamlet 2″ 
“Lakeview Terrace” (6.5 / 10)
“Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead”
“Imagine That” (6.5 / 10)
“Hellboy II: Golden Army” (6.5 / 10)
“Tropic Thunder” (6.5 /10)
“Good Luck Chuck”
“The Day the Earth Stood Still” (6.5 / 10)
“Ghosts of Girlfriends Past” (6.0 / 10)
“Journey to the Center of the Earth” 
“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” (6.0 / 10)
“Body of Lies” (6.0)
“Monsters Vs. Aliens” (6.0 / 10)
“Zach and Miri Make a Porno” (6.0 / 10)
“Noise” (6.0 / 10)
“The Chaos Experiment” (6.0 / 10)**
“Fragments” (5.5 / 10)
“Confessions of A Shopaholic” (5.5 / 10)
“My Life in Ruins” (5.5 / 10)
“Quarantine” (5.5 / 10)
“Charlie Wilson’s War” 
“Mad Money” 
“Year One” (4.0 / 10)
“Dance Flick” (2.0 / 10)

– 

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Round two of the MHSAA football playoffs has some intriguing matchups. 

Rockford hosts Grand Haven in Division 1.  The Rams beat the Bucs 14-0 in week five.  The loss was the Bucs only one of the season. 

The Muskegon Big Reds have knocked Lowell out of the playoffs twice in the last three seasons.   The Big Reds look like they’re hitting their stride at just the right time, but will they be able to move the ball against a solid Lowell defense? 

Also from Division 2, Caledonia travels to Portage.  The Scots went to overtime to beat Portage Northern last week. 

In Division 3, East Grand Rapids quest for a four-peat goes through Byron Center.  The Pioneers have hardly been tested this season.  One wildcard in this game, former Caledonia head coach, Tom Burrill is on the Bulldogs staff.  He is one of the few coaches in the state to have pinned multiple losses on Peter Stuursma.  The big questions for Byron Center, can they handle the speed of East GR, and can they stop Kirk Spencer from making the big play?  Nobody has been able to do that yet.

We’ve got two marquee games in Division 4.  Holland Christian travels to West Catholic.  Hamilton heads to Three Rivers.

Muskegon Heights at Morley-Stanwood and Berrien Springs vs. Kelloggsville headline Division 5. 

The game of the week in Division 8 could very well be the championship game in that division.  Muskegon CC at Climax-Scotts.  Don’t be surprised if the winner of this game goes on to win a championship.

Friday on the Frenzy we’ll have hi lites from at least 10 second round playoff games.

<–After the Blizzard of ‘78 (Dude, where’s my car??!!). Here’s how I began last year’s winter forecast: “One of the best winter forecasts ever made was recorded by Laura Ingalls Wilder (in “The Long Winter“) while her family was homesteading in the fall of 1880 near what is now DeSmet, South Dakota. While the settlers gathered at the general store, a dignified, old Native American comes to warn the settlers about the coming “heap, big snows – for 7 (full) moons”. Most of the settlers heeded the warning and moved to town for the winter. Just as predicted, the blizzards came from late October to early April. This winter West Michigan won’t see blizzards for 7 full moons…but we’re going to have plenty of cold and snow between late November and late March.”

That last sentence proved to be true. Only a monster thaw on the weekend after Christmas (the temperature hit 60° due to the “Cancun Connection”) prevented us from getting some “Blizzard of ‘78″ style snow piles that would have really added up because the temperature stayed below freezing for all but a few hours during January (which was nearly five degrees colder than average). Here’s the bulk of last year’s forecast which you can reread here:

“Having digested all of this and more, I think snowfall this winter (2008-09) over the area will be above normal, varying from 55-60 inches in Lansing area to 85 inches in Grand Rapids to 100 inches in the favorable lake-effect areas. Marquette in the Upper Peninsula should top 150” for the winter. I think it’ll be colder than average in December. Lake Michigan is a little warmer than average and the lake temperature will stop for a week or two around 39 degrees as the lake water “overturns”. This will set the stage for some significant lake-effect snow in late November into December. We have a 57% chance of a White Christmas in Grand Rapids. This year I think the chance of a White Christmas (snow on the ground) will be at least 75%. We will see a January thaw, but winter will drag on a little later into March, when temperatures may again be a little cooler than average. This will mean we’ll have to spend a fair amount of money on plowing, sanding and salting. That will be a concern as the winter drags on during these financially lean times. So, don’t be afraid to get the season ski pass, get the snowmobile or cross country skies ready or find the ice fishing equipment. Winter is definitely on the way! This pattern will mean only brief incursions of cool air to central and southern Florida, so if you want to escape the cold, that would be a nice place to be.”

Let’s see how I did:   I got the above normal snowfall right. I wasn’t quite high enough on the totals, but I don’t think I’d ever forecast +100″ in  a mid-fall forecast. We did get some heavy lake-effect snow from late November into early December. Holland had 67″ of snowfall before Christmas Eve (sometimes they don’t get that much in any entire winter), including over 3 feet of snow from Nov. 16 to Dec. 9. We did get the White Christmas. We didn’t get a January thaw, but we did get monster thaws on the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s and also on Feb. 10-11. So the idea of a thaw was correct, but I missed the timing. The first week of March was cold (as cold as 5 above), but the weather story in March was +70% sunshine. The weather turned chilly again in early April (just in time for spring break) with below average temps. from April 4-14.   BTW, Tampa FL. was 0.6° warmer than average for Dec. thru Feb.  The cold air never really got down to south Florida.

There is so much to study when making up a winter forecast. I look at the prevailing upper level winds, world sea-surface temperatures, the cold that builds up by mid-Autumn in the Arctic, sunspot cycles, the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific Decadal Oscillations, 2009 Atlantic hurricane patterns (a very wimpy year for tropical storms), the number of 90-degree days we’ve had during the previous summer (7 in the last 2 summers combined, average is 9.5 for one summer), and the current state of La Nina/El Nino. We look back through our weather history to find correlations to the current conditions around the northern hemisphere and years when similar conditions were prevalent in the fall. Any forecast is a guess, an “educated guess”. The data base and the computer models aren’t good enough for near perfect forecast (won’t be in my lifetime), but long range forecasting has improved with new technology over the past 30 years, especially with weather satellites. Read the rest of this entry »

You have another chance to see the classic ‘Wizard of Oz’

If you missed it back in September, the 70th Anniversary presentation of “The Wizard Of Oz”, is coming back to more than 300 movie theaters across the country on one night only November 17th.

The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Encore Event will happen on Tuesday, November 17th at 6:30 p.m. in 324 movie theaters.   The remastered movie will be introduced with a taped interview from Robert Osborne, film historian and host of Turner Classic Movies.

In West Michigan, the movie will be at the following theaters, tickets are $10 and available at the box office:

West Columbia 7 - 2500 Columbia Ave W,  Battle Creek, MI, 49015

Holland 7 - 500 S Waverly Rd, Holland, MI, 49423
 
Kalamazoo 10 - 820 Maple Hill Dr, Kalamazoo, MI, 49009

Its also playing at 11 other theaters across Michigan, check theaters for ticket prices: Read the rest of this entry »

Former Grand Rapids Mayor Lyman Parks dead at the age of 92.

I was a rookie reporter here at TV-8 when Lyman Parks was Mayor of Grand Rapids.  The fact that he was also a minister was not lost on me nor this community.  It’s interesting to note, nearly four decades later, we have another man of the cloth holding the same seat of power in Grand Rapids, George Heartwell.

I always thought Rev. Parks was a man for his time in this city.  Grand Rapids, like so many other urban areas in this nation, was emerging from the ravages of racism and riots.  Being black, but equally as important, being a holy man, Rev. Parks felt a calling to bridge the great divide that separated blacks from whites, the inner city from the suburbs, the have nots from the haves.

If you knew him, observed him from a distance, or watched him up close in action, you witnessed his dignity and pose.  Characteristic of a minister, there was a poeticism in the way he spoke and certainly a spirituality in his approach.

To me, he seemed like a man of conviction not confrontation… reconciliation not reparation.  He had a vision and a voice and he used them both to help begin the rebuilding of this city through brick and mortar as well as through human discourse and relationships.

The first black Mayor of Grand Rapids paid a visit to one of the wealthiest white men of Ada, Richard DeVos,  and that began a conversation and a relationship that led to a life-long renewal of a city. 

In the late 60’s and early 70’s, Rev. Lyman Parks shattered a myth, an erroneous perception of who a black man was and what he could accomplish.  In his high profile position as leader of Michigan’s second largest city, Mayor Parks could go where other blacks had no access and he could chisel cracks in the great divide.

May his memory be eternal.

<–Bill Steffen and Craig James in 1975.  Thirty-five years ago today, I did my first television show in Grand Rapids.  I worked 6 days a week and made $175 a week or $9,100 a year.  My father sold me a car for a buck, which was about 50% of actual value.  We had the tan blazers that the “Eyewitness News Team” wore every night.  Notice us wearing the little balloon stickers from the “Eyewitness Balloon” (wonder if pilot Doug Mills is still out there?).  I was 23 with hair over my ears (ah…the 70s).  I had come from the Univ. of Wisconsin at Madison, where I was living in a sorority house with 53 girls (It was legal.  I was the houseboy at Delta Gamma).  This was my first TV job.  I had done a little sports on the radio on WNTH-FM in Winnetka, Illinois when I was in high school (I had this nice deep bass voice that sounded good on FM.  I had to read a long list of football scores and I remember looking in the dictionary to discover new verbs for what one team could do to another).  I had received a B.S. in Meteorology and Physical Geography while in Madison.  We had two large maps for TV…the state map and the national map.  We wrote on them with markers, and had a spray bottle and paper towels to clean them.  The forecast was just tomorrow and the next day.  Craig and I hand plotted surface maps several times a day and analyzed them with different color pencils (some were real works of art!).  The main news anchors were Cal Wierenga and Jim Rummel.  Henry Capogna (now sales manager for Clear Channel in G.R.) did sports.  I was on at Noon with News Director Jack Hogan (now a city councilman in Claremont, Florida) and Dick Richards, and I did radio on WZZM-FM…which had some decent numbers back then…not in Bruce Grant territory, but we did all right.   A high school kid named Rick Beckett had some air time back then…anyone remember…Bill Gamble or Lee DeYoung (or did he use the Dutch spelling, I don’t remember) or Dave Kent? Read the rest of this entry »

<–Live radar of W. Michigan.  Nothing more than a sprinkle in most areas today.  There is a small chance of a little stronger light shower or a few snow flakes, but this will all be very light.  So far a few sprinkles at Muskegon, .06″ up at Ludington.  There is a small trough in easterm Wisconsin that will keep the clouds around tonight into tomorrow AM.  Thursday night we’ll get below freezing before a little mild air comes in on Friday.  It will be a little breezy Friday PM, but at least it’ll be dry for the Friday night high school football playoffs.  Saturday we could catch a light shower.  It’ll be an overall milder pattern with high in the 50s to near 60 from Friday thru early next week.  No big storms on the horizon now.   I’m working on the winter forecast this AM.  Here’s GRR NWS radar, GRR storm total rainfall, Great Lakes radar Storm Total Rainfall, latest surface observations, a surface weather map, GRR NWS discussion, Visible Satellite loop (daytime), Infrared Satellite Loop (night), Here’s Milwaukee NWS radar and Chicago radar, Chicago storm total rainfall, the Spyglass Weather Station (Holland Channel) and the Muskegon GLERL weather station. Gale Warnings for Lake Michigan.