2009, so far
October 28th, 2009 at 11:22 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
Here’s the year 2009 so far. I’ll start with % of sunshine/average for the month: Jan. 26/29, Feb. 33/39, March 72/46, April 49/51, May 65/56, June 64/61, July 64/64, August 61/61, Sept. 64/54, Oct. 24/44. The weird part is that relative to average, March has been the sunniest month and October the cloudiest. We have not had a single day in October with more than 80% sun. I was surprised to see the July was normal, that seemed cloudier to me. Precipitation has been 35.68″. That’s 4.97″ above average and continues the overall wet pattern from 2008. Here’s the temperature departure from normal: Jan -4.9, Feb. +2.8, March +2.7, April +1.1, May +0.2, June +0.5, July -4.3, Aug. -0.4, Sept. +2.3, Oct. -3.2. We’re about +0.1 for the year, so pretty much at average. The two biggest severe weather events were June 19, when Holland got up to 8″ of rain and we had 3 tornadoes in Allegan Co., and August 9, when 85 mph winds hit Fruitport. The most snow midnight-to-midnight was 4.8″ on 2/21. We had 2 days with 4.7″ in January. Obviously, storms usually overlap days…but we could certainly have a day that tops 4.8″ in late Nov. or Dec. No general hail days like 7/2/08 and the number of severe weather events has been considerably lower than average both here and for the U.S. in general. Final note…looks like a decent snowstorm from Colorado thru western Neb. and the western Dakotas. Already: St. Mary’s Glacier, Colorado 17.0″, Meagher Co. Montana 16″, Centennial, Wyoming 14″.
In June of 2008, holland got around 6 inches of rain in a 24 hour period, in june of 2006, holland got around 8 inches of rain in a 24 hour period. How possible would it be for this to happen again in june of 2010?
Sorry, the second one should be June of 2009.
New Orleans was chilly. No high over 69 while I was there. No rain though so it didn’t interrupt my plans =)
The Halloween forecast has warmed up a bit since I’ve been away.
Bill I am having a hard time believing accumulating snow by 2nd week of November. I really hope so. Whats your opinion now, because last week you said yes about snow?
the answer would be no, the models look warm. besides the ground is still pretty warm for anything to stick. id like snow for x-mas, then it can all go away again.
Hey Bill, I saw that NWS changed thier 2009-2010 winter forecast for Michigan on Oct 15. Instead of having us in the “Above normal” for temps and “below normal” for snow, they now have us in “EC-equal chance for either above or below” for both temps and precip. Is that to cover themselves if it swings in either direction? Why can’t they commit to one way vs. the other? I guess we will all have to wait and see-but I wish everyone would say that we will be cold and snowy for sure!
What do you think the chances are for t-storms on Friday? The SPC has us in convection for Thursday.
We’re right on the edge of above normal temps and below normal precip. Just means they don’t have enough data to push one way or another.
Oct 28,2009 It really was nice out by Hudsonville today the Sun peeked out for awhile, somewhat a haze and some clouds came around 5pm. Was not really bad, and warmed up a bit. Tomorrow who knows ? Just enjoy the day. Smile Everybody. :->
I was pretty surprised about the percentage for July, too. Remembering back, I felt like it was a lot more cloudy than usual…not many sunny beach days, that’s for sure.
the beaches suffered very hard this year, thats for sure. heres to hoping for a warmer, nicer 2010.
im shocked with the lack of severe weather this year. 2008 at least brought in some good ones. seems every year that passes brings less and less storms.