Click on the picture from Tyler Folkert to really see it.   The lights look reddish because they are coming from over 80 miles away.  The red color (with the longest wavelength) is best able to survive the 80 miles through the air.  It’s the same reason the sun changes from white light during the day to yellow, orange or red at sunset.  I’ve had a  (now it’s up to) many calls and emails from viewers who have seen the lights of Milwaukee tonight at the Lake Michigan shoreline!  This is a VERY rare event, usually occurring from mid-April to mid-May on clear, calm nights.  Usually, of course, you can’ t see Milwaukee because the Earth is curved and Milwaukee’s tallest buildings are below the horizon.  However, once in a VERY great while, the lights of Milwaukee will bounce off a temperature inversion and then become visible along the lakeshore here in Michigan.  From the Minnesota Sea Grant website:  “In Rainbows, Haloes and Glories, author Robert Greenler reported that one April night the residents of Grand Haven, Mich. looked across Lake Michigan and saw city lights and a flashing red beacon. Their sightings were later confirmed to have been the city of Milwaukee, Wisc. ”

And this from www.sandhillcity.com:

“Directly across the lake from Grand Haven — but well beyond the horizon — is Milwaukee, over 80 miles away,” Rickards spokesman Tom Dingle said recently. “On an occasion in 1977, a temperature inversion over Lake Michigan created a superior mirage, and the lights of Milwaukee’s skyline became clearly visible across the water, bent from beyond the horizon by layers of cold air in the atmosphere.”

Rickards is developing a video that will weave together spoken recollections of the mirages of the Wisconsin shoreline, as seen by residents of Grand Haven.

“This strange and rare event happens only when specific atmospheric circumstances occur, conjuring the image of Milwaukee from beyond the horizon through a precise combination of atmospheric layers at differing temperatures,” Dingle said. “The result is an immaterial image of a city hanging above the surface of the lake.”

This also happens on very rare occasion to the lights of Cleveland going across the lake to Ontario, Canada.

Click on Drawing to enlarge – courtesy of the National Snow and Ice Data Center.   If you get a picture or video, please send it to us at ReportIt.

Send a link to the blog thread – it’s a pretty rare event.

   The weather for the rest of the week in Holland looks pretty good.  That includes the weather for the 3 big parades.   Today a tiny little front could kick up a light shower, but that’s pretty iffy, and most all of the day will be dry with afternoon temperatures in the upper 50s to near 60.  The Volksparade (street scrubbing) is at 2 PM (all 3 of the big parades start at 2 PM – the street scrubbing and town crier start Weds. at 1:15 PM – the actual parade is at 2 PM).  The odds of rain during the parade is only about 25%.  The weather should be perfect for the Kinderparade (Children’s Parade) on Thursday, with sunshine, light winds and temperatures in the low-mid 60s.  Friday looks mostly sunny and pleasant with highs near 70, and while the chance of rain on Saturday isn’t zero…we’re still hoping that we can get a dry parade (Muziekparade or the Parade of Bands).  The Tues. night run of the European model keeps us dry during the day on Saturday.    They tell me there are still some tulips left, and there are lots of other flowers to enjoy.  There are activities throughout the day and well into the evening.  Here’s the Tulip Time Schedule of Events.  Picture from S. Schrier on ReportIt.  See the picture full screen.     ADD:  Take a ride on the Space Shuttle:  LIFTOFF!

   A significant tornado hit just north of Tokyo, Japan in the city of Tsukuba.  Here’s some good video.  More video.   It was the worst tornado in Japan since 2006, when a November tornado in Saroma killed 9 people.   Japan averages 15 tornadoes per year, but almost all of them are small, short-lived EF0 to weak EF1.   A teenage boy was killed and at least 52 others were injured.  The twister left over 20,000 homes without power.  Damage will go into the millions of U.S. dollars.  The data appears to be EF2, but has not been officially rated.  The worst tornado in Japan occurred on Sept. 26, 1881.  Sixteen fatalities were reported with that twister, some at a local elementary school.   Picture courtesy of AP/Kyoto News.   More pictures here.

   Click on the picture to enlarge.  A solar eclipse begins in the U.S. and extends across the Pacific on the evening of May 20.  In the U.S., it’ll be best viewed in northern California.  Here in Michigan, the eclipse will begin shortly before the sun sets.  Check out this page for more information.  Also check out this page from the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society and maybe plan on joining them at Warren Dunes that evening.  We’d need a clear sky to the west that evening and that’s not the easiest thing to do.  Even on a clear day, incoming cirrus clouds or summer haze can dim the sun before it reaches a flat horizon.   There’s a spectacular solar eclipse coming to the U.S. in August 2017 and another on April 8, 2024.  Another very rare event will occur on June 5th this year.  Venus will move across (transit) the sun.  This will be the last chance you’ll be able to see this in your lifetime.  The next transit of Venus will be in the year 2117.  Also check out the Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Assn.

  A quick reminder that Kyle, Laura and me will all be on WOOD-radio Saturday at Noon.  You can phone in your questions.  We’ll be talking about the weather for the coming summer and winter, severe weather safety (I just got back from a couple days of touring tornado damage in IN and KY (mostly listening to see what I could learn about what I could do as a TV meteorologist before, during and after a big event like that), and much more.   Hope you can listen in – noon on WOOD, 1300AM and 106.9 FM.

  Severe T-storm Watch for the counties that border Indiana until 11 PM.  Warning for S. Allegan and Van Buren counties until 11:15 PM.  Small hail was reported in S. Haven. Golfball-sized hail near Leonidas in St. Joseph Co and 2″ diameter hail in Jackson Co.   I got several reports of 1/2-3/4″ hail with the cell that went through N. Kent Co. -  just what the fruit farmers need – hail damage.  Storms moving along and south of I-94 through midnight.  New showers storms formed in Allegan/Barry/Kent/Montcalm and Ionia counties.  Gust to 54 mph in Lansing, wind damage in Flint, also damage in Muskegon Co. and Montcalm Co.    Any of the stronger storms could have hail.   Many reports of hail – inc. 1.25″ hail near Plainwell.   Many reports of small hail.  The largest hail in W. Michigan was golfball-sized near Scottville in Mason Co.  Already 2-4″ of rain has caused some minor flooding in Mason, Lake, Osceola and Wexford Counties (3.9″ in Lake Co.).  There were also watches for N. Lower Michigan and SE Wisconsin.   Hail has been reported near Middleville and in Ionia Co.     WISCONSIN storms produced 70 mph winds, golfball-sized hail and heavy rain.  Rain totals since midnight:  4.37″ at Green Lake WI and 4.35″ at Berlin.

These are the Day 1, Day 2 and Day 3 severe weather outlooks from SPC.    Note:  The outlooks pictured here will change with SPC updates.    Click here for the current SPC outlooks.  Wow!  Over 100 tornadoes reported Saturday.   Major damage at the Wichita KS. airport, where the wind gusted to 84 mph!  A large tornado moved through south Wichita around 10 p.m. Saturday night.  There have been reports of significant damage.  McConnell Air Force base has hangar damage, and a building at the Spirit Aerosystem’s plant has collapsed…you can see insulation hanging from power lines.  Major damage – hospital hit by tornado in Iowa.    EF2 tornado already Friday in Norman OK.  Twenty-One injuries were reported.  Another tornado hit Blair OK and there were reports of tennis ball-sized hail.   The Storm Prediction Center has had a HIGH RISK AREA out for Saturday for central Kansas and Oklahoma, S. Nebraska (just general thunderstorms for Michigan overnight – Slight Risk comes into W. Michigan Sunday).  They had a whopping 60% chance of severe out 2 days in advance!!  SPC says “…VERY FAVORABLE FOR SEVERE STORMS AND A TORNADO OUTBREAK…ENVIRONMENT SHOULD BE VERY FAVORABLE FOR SUPERCELLS AND TORNADOES. 0-3 KM STORM RELATIVE HELICITIES ARE FORECAST TO BE AROUND 400 M2/S2 WHICH IS IDEAL FOR STRONG TORNADOES…A HIGH RISK WILL BE ISSUED DUE TO THE POTENTIAL FOR A HIGH-END LIFE THREATENING EVENT.   People in and near Salina, Manhattan,  Wichita, Oklahoma City, Enid and Ponca City better take this seriously.  Keep coming back to the blog for updates.  This is only the 2nd time in history that a high risk area has been issued this far in advance.  This is also the 2nd high risk area of 2012…the last one was March 2 when there were 58 tornadoes and 41 fatalities.  There have been 92 days with a high risk area since 1984.  Here’s a link to Chaser TV.    ALSO:  Check out this picture of lightning hitting the San Francisco Bay Bridge.

  Major Earthquakes today!  This could be the biggest strike-slip earthquake ever recorded.   Two major (and a dozen medium-sized) earthquakes have occurred roughly 240 miles west of the island of Sumatra, Indonesia.  The earthquakes measured magnitudes 8.6 and 8.2.  They were centered about 13.67 miles and 9.94 miles under the ocean surface and well away from land.  It appears they were “horizontal” earthquakes with no significant tsunami generated.  Considering the distance from land, damage should be minimal.  This is the same general area where a giant 9.1-magnitude quake occurred on December 26, 2004, triggering a tsunami across the Indian Ocean that killed 230,000 people in 13 countries. Tsunami alerts were issued for both earthquakes.  A small tsunami (30″ at maximum) was reported. This evening a magnitude 6.5 earthquake hit Mexico about 250 miles WSW of Mexico City and we have a 5.9 magnitude earthquake 160 miles off the coast of Oregon.  Now a 4.8 quake in Utah.

   First some music.  You know it was coming.  He’s the latest from Ed:  “Wholesale prices have risen 10 cents since Thursday, while retail prices have drifted lower by about a dime since then.  You know what that means:  price hike to $4.09 or so is on its way, probably Tuesday.  That’s a prediction.” — Ed Aboufadel     So…save your pennies and save your dimes…and top off early before the plus-four.

A meteor (also known as a shooting star) shot across the sky Weds. AM.  I had several calls and emails here at the station and through facebook.   It was not part of a meteor shower (here’s a list of this year’s meteor showers). It was seen throughout West Michigan and east into Ohio.   Ron from Shelby, Michigan said:  “SUPER AWESOME long tail with bright green ball in front then a quick flash then nothing…glowing train very wide front to back.”  Scroll down and read more comments here.    Most meteors burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere. However, pieces of a meteor did crash into Wisconsin back in April 2010.   If you saw it, leave a comment and tell us what time you saw it, what it looked like and which direction you were facing.