October Weather Summary
November 1st, 2009 at 1:41 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<–Picture from Bob P. in the U.P. from POSTED. October 2009 was cooler, wetter and cloudier than average. We wound up the month only 1.6° cooler than average (49.9°), finishing the month with a string of 12 out of 13 days warmer than average. The average high temperature was 4° cooler than average and the average low was 0.7° warmer than average (in part due to all the clouds we had…minimizing the usual spread between the high and low temperature for each day). It was the first time in history (and records go back to 1892) that we did not reach 70° in October. We had four mornings at GRR when the temperature was at or below 32°. Rainfall totaled 7.64″, making it the 2nd wettest October ever. We had at least a trace of rain on the last 11 days of the month and we had only 7 days all month when we didn’t record at least a trace of rain. We had measurable rain on 16 of 31 days and the 2.83″ of rain on Oct. 30th was the 2nd wettest day ever in Grand Rapids during any October (we had 3.58″ downtown). We had only 22% of possible sunshine. We didn’t have a single day with more than 80% sun and only 3 days with more than 58% sunshine. GRR didn’t record any t-storms…though (early morning of the 30th) many areas south did catch a couple flashes of lightning. The average wind speed was 8.7 mph and gusts topped 40 mph on the 6th and 30th and hit 51 mph at GRR on the 7th. You can read the GRR NWS summary for Grand Rapids, Muskegon and Lansing for more about the weather of Oct. 2009.
Welcome November! All Saint’s Day!!!
It finally stopped raining here yesterday and allowed the trick-or-treaters a dry (though still windy and cold) Halloween.
Nice photo Bob!
Thanks Doc, wish I was up there now…I miss it!
Thnaks Bill for posting it here on the blog..
Not many leaves left up here Bob after all the rain and wind this week. Had some snowflakes mixed in with the rain yesterday, but nothing much. A bit of rain very early this morning, but at the moment it is rather calm outside. I heard they were escorting folks across the Bridge Friday and Saturday.
thankx for keeping in touch. nice to know whats going on in the U.P.!
Awesome picture Bob P….I cannot wait to visit that area next summer..
So what does this particular October lead to for the winter?
http://blogs.woodtv.com/2009/10/27/wet-october-means-snow/
Southern jet is now out of the picture so no big storms coming for the forseeable future as the northern jet takes over and will now be in a weak areas of low pressure running through the area with not much in the way of precip. It may be cold enough for some snow to mix in as were now in the month of November of course. I’m thinking between deer season and thanksgiving the jet stream should come back into play and should start to see more action in the weather department, according to most of the computer models that I’ve looked at the past few days. Not saying that the northern jet can’t produce decent moisture its that the gulf of mexico will be cut off for awhile now, farmers still need to get in their fields and harvest the soys and corn yet. Still wouldn’t be surprised to see some minor accummulations of snow from an embedded system coming out of the northwest and models do hint at normal to very slightly above normal temps the next two weeks. I’ll bet December could be like october except it will be cold enough for snow….we hope..enjoy the first day of november.
Kevin thanks for rembering the farmers, most people tend to shrug them off. My father has a farm here in caledonia, he still has 400+ acers of beans still in the fields. the weather has been so bad he’s hinted at maybe having to use crop insurance. if the weather holds maybe he won’t have to.
yes the media weather is geared to commuters and often isnt that relavent to some of us out in the sticks.
Mike just got back from lansing area and saw a few harvesting there soys which I was glad to see, I’m hoping they can get it done the next few weeks. I always pray that they have a good year from start to finish, its not the easiest job to have but someone has to do it. Farming I think is a very difficult business no matter what kind it is and appreciate the food at the table every time………….thanks Mike.
I also see the models are hitting Alaska hard the next two weeks with big storms and the far northeastern United States and eastern Canada could be in for some big snows as well.
I would concur that there’s a change of weather in Alaska. After a nice summer and fall, a cold wind carrying glacier silt blew in on Thursday. The city pond (think John Ball Zoo size) I walk around on my work break went from open water on Thursday to 75% ice covered on Friday. Brrrr.
Bird watchers can see the huge effects, too. Two weeks ago we had a very rare sighting of a blue heron in Anchorage. A week ago swans, ducks, geese and seagulls were everywhere. I have no idea if the blue heron made it out of here, but the rest of the crew starting with the swans (first to leave) to the seagulls (the last to leave) are high tailing it out of here.
But so far, no snow fall on my yard.
thankx again for keeping in touch. like having a friend in alaska. been there once, hope to make it back someday
Horrible month… cold, wet, and no sun
amen!