We have high clouds overhead this PM (nighttime loop). Sometimes they can give you a nice sunset like the one in the picture from last week (from “marsen” on POSTED).  Here’s regional radar, showing rain in Indiana and Illinois.  While it’s not impossible that there could be a sprinkle/light shower along the Indiana border…most of us will stay dry until at least Wednesday midday (best bet for showers Weds. will be SSW of Grand Rapids in the PM.  No snow this week.  The latest GFS pushes the snow back to Sunday the 29th.  I still think we are snowier/colder for the period between Nov. 29 – Dec. 31 and maybe beyond.  Note, when I say “snowier” – a greater percentage of snow this winter should be lake-effect, so there will be more of a gradient between those areas that will get decent NW flow lake effect and inland areas like Lansing.  The weekly European still looks chilly for the 10 days before Christmas.  The CFS monthly 700 mb map (zoom in and look at December) has it cold (blue) over much of the eastern U.S., including Michigan for December – February.  It was chilly out west – 30’s this morning in Las Vegas and Tucson.  Denver picked up 9.4″ of snow (but they are still 6 deg. warmer than average for Nov. – five days this month in the 70s).  18.6% of the Lower 48 States reported a snow cover this morning – that’s almost all in the western U.S.

Record cold and snow continues to blast eastern Asia. At least 40 people have been killed by record early season snowfalls across northern China. There were 3 fatalities and 28 injuries as a school cafeteria roof collapsed due to the weight of the heavy snow. Shanxi and Hebei Provinces were especially hard hit. Damage is reported to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, with trees and power lines snapped from the weight of the snow. A total of 470,000 acres of unharvested crops may be lost. People made snow sculptures in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, where temperatures have been running as much as 15 degrees below average. Farther north in Siberia, the temperature climbed above zero for the first time since Oct. 26 at Verkoyansk. They saw temperatures as cold as -47F last week.  No snow this week for Michigan, but look for snow and cold to build into the state after Thanksgiving.

I searched high and low to find someone having a worse day than the Detroit Lions and I think I found him. This is a million-dollar plus Buggati Veyron (there are only 15 of them in the U.S.) sitting in a salt water marsh. The driver says he was distracted by a low-flying pelican and he dropped his cell phone as he drove off the I-45 frontage road into the lake.  There is video here (warning:  offensive but understandable expletives on the tape).  The driver, 34-year old Andy House is a Lufkin, Texas car broker (I’d say he’s a little “broker” now!)  BTW, if he’s a car broker, that might not be his car – oops!  Click to read more about the car. (more…)

<–Wheels off again!  The Detroit Lions have now lost 31 of their last 33 games.  That’s only happened once before.  The old Houston Oilers did it between Nov. 1982 and Nov. 1984.  The Lions have now lost 17 road games in a row (since Oct. 28, 2007).  They’ve lost their last seven road games by an average of over 16 points.  They’ve also lost 12 in a row at the Metrodome in Minneapolis.  They’ve lost 8 straight to the Vikings and 16 of the last 18 to the Vikes.   Despite a couple of costly turnovers and 13 penalties, the Vikings (Favre and Sidney Rice) had fun with the Lions pass defense.  Favre had a 120.5 for a Q.B. rating.  The Colts/Patriots game on NBC Sunday Night was a better game.  In the meantime, my alma mater gave the Michigan Wolverines their 6th consecutive Big Ten loss (their only win was a close 3-point victory over Indiana, which is 1-6 in the conference.  Michigan has Ohio State next.  Good luck.   In the Big Ten, Ohio State, Penn State, and Iowa are all 9-2.  Wisconsin is 8-2.    In the latest BCS standings, we see 6 undefeated teams, including TCU, Brian Kelly’s Cincinnati Bearcats and Boise St. (where they play on a blue football field).   Sunday I quit the Lions game early and rode my old bicycle up the White Pines Trail from Comstock Park to Rockford (I got up to 12-Mile Rd.).  I logged 21 miles in a little over 2 1/2 hours, not bad for an old guy!  I  passed a hundred-plus people on the trail…hiking, biking, walking the dog, roller-blading…and just walking around the area around the Rockford Dam and downtown Rockford.  Glad I wasn’t on this bike trail!  We’re now +4.7 degrees for November.   The evening GFS gives us snow starting on Saturday the 28th.  That isn’t far from average.  I remember when we were doing the first inch of snow contest on WZZM that we had 3 consecutive years that the first inch was on Nov. 27.

<–The only F4 rated tornado in Australian history, November 29,1992.  This is near Bucca in Queensland.  They say hail the size of cricket balls (about 3″ in diameter) accompanied the twister.  A picture frame was embedded sideways into a wall.   Other historical tornadoes in Australia:  On Nov. 4, 1973 a strong tornado struck just west of Brisbane.  It damaged 1,400 homes.  Some of them were leveled.  There were no fatalities, but many injuries were reported.  This tornado was on the ground for 32 miles and had winds of over 157 mph.  Another tornado killed three people at Kin Kin in Queensland on August 14, 1971.  Here’s some cool weather pictures from Australia.

A powerful storm moved across Wales and southern England, producing winds measured as high as 100 mph (160 km/hr) at the Needles on the Isle of Wight. Winds hit 59 mph at Heathrow Airport in London and at Southampton. Langdon Bay had a gust to 79 mph and Solent reached 76 mph.   Plymouth and Culdrose also recorded gusts over 70 mph.  At Newhaven, gigantic waves shot over the top of the harbor lighthouse.  Nine Flood Warnings were issued and the Dover Port was closed. Police also closed river crossings.  The Gattwick weather station in London has had measurable rain on fourteen consecutive days.  Sixty homes were damaged in Benfleet, Essex. One woman was injured in Sussex when a tree fell on her car.  Fire and Rescue responded to two fires that were started by lightning.  Dozens of people had to be rescued from flooded vehicles.  At Haverfordwest 12 people were rescued from a flooded coach.  Several rain lines were closed by mudslides and trees that had fallen across the tracks.  Video here.  Cool pictures here.

We’ve had only 0.14″ of rain in the first two weeks of November, but the heavy rains of October have kept the water level of Lake Michigan steady over the past month.  Usually the water level of the lake drops a little bit in the fall.  The level is a full 11″ higher than one year ago (that is a very big increase in just a year).  The level is now only 4″ below the 100-year average.  Lake Superior is now 2″ higher than one year ago, and 5″ below average.  Lake Erie is now 6″ higher than one year ago and 4″ above it’s average level.  Lake Ontario is at the same level as last year and 1″ below the century average.  Despite the fact that the Grand River fell 18″ at the downtown Grand Rapids gauge last week, the river level is still a little above average.

The Kalamazoo Holiday Parade was at 11 AM Saturday.  I was in the parade, along with Matt Kirkwood, Terri DeBoer, Rachael Ruiz and Emily Linnert.  It was sunny and 60 degrees with a light south wind…unseasonably warm for 11/14.   No sign of any real cold air until about 11/23.  I still think we get a significant cold shot in December that really turns on the lake-effect.

Check out these snow pictures from Montana.  They report 30″ of new snow near Bozeman, MT.  Here’s more snow totals from last night.  Butte, MT was -3 this morning.  Police responded to over 70 accidents and clocked a drunk driver going 103 mph on US 287.  The Forest Service warned of possible avalanches in the mountains.

<– Sunset on Lake Macatawa 11/11/09 from Rscholar on POSTED.  Happy Friday the 13th.  It’ll be a lucky day weatherwise, with partly sunny skies and afternoon temperatures in the mid-upper 50s.   So far the month of November is running 3.3 warmer than average with only 0.14″ of rain.   We’ve had 44.8% sunshine for the month, double the percent of sunshine we had in October.  We haven’t had a single day with less than 18% sunshine.  All of the last 10 days of October had less than 18% sunshine.   The (relatively) warm and dry pattern will continue through the middle of next week.  The night run of the GFS would bring us some snow around Thanksgiving Day.  Lake Michigan is still up around 50 degrees, and when the cold air gets here, there is sure the potential for significant lake-effect snow.  Alaska is getting colder.  High of 27 at Anchorage, +3 at Barrow and a low of -27 at Arctic Village.