Gray, Then Gorgeous!

Good Morning!

It was a mild night in south central Michigan last night with most places only getting down into the mid or lower 50's for nighttime lows, and temperatures have not really moved all that much as we start hump day under cloudy skies.  It actually feels more like a damp spring morning than fall in my mind.  At any rate, let's take a deeper dive and see what's going on around here today.

TEMPERATURES:  As it stands now, after we get through this gray and damp stretch, high pressure moves into the area, puts it in park, and we see beautiful fall weather with mild conditions and temperatures trending a few degrees above normal.  Right now looking at the surface observations you can see a little bit of a surface boundary that has some cooler air on the back side of it.  We're in the 60's here, and 50's are prevalent in the north zone of the blog...

Surface Observation Plot - Temperatures in Red, Dewpoints in Green

An upper trough digs into the southeast, turning winds out of the north and cooling us down in the middle part of next week.

RAIN:  Believe it or not, there isn't much rain in the forecast for the next several days!  Take a look at this map:

5 Day Precipitation Forecast

The National Weather Service says that we get barely anything here in Michigan, and I can definitely buy that, with clear skies and high pressure over this part of the world looking at the computer models.  I'd love to show you a visible satellite image, but GOES 13, the satellite that normally snaps pictures of the eastern part of the US, is out right now.  Another satellite has been activated to take it's place, but until the data feeds are re-configured to pull from GOES 14, the spare satellite, I can't show you those pictures.  I can show you a US composite satellite view, here it is:

Visible Satellite Image

You can see the scale along the bottom that shows the approximate amount of cloud cover.  This is NOT a radar image, the Grand Rapids NEXRAD is showing nothing but a lot of ground clutter and the increased reflectivity is some fog that the radar is seeing.

SEVERE WEATHER:  No severe weather in this part of the world expected, but we do see a "slight" risk in the Southern Plains and over the Central Appalachians...

SPC Day 1 Severe Outlook - Wind and hail are the biggest threats under the yellow "slight" risk areas.

After that, it should be pretty quiet in the US for the next couple of days regarding severe weather.   Yesterday we did have a tornado or two in southern Illinois that caused some damage.  Nothing like that for Michigan.

Low 60's throughout south central Michigan right now, here's the forecast for Jackson and surrounding communities including Spring Arbor and Michigan Center...

Today, cloudy skies, mild, a chance of an isolated shower, high 65, winds NW 4-8 MPH.

Tonight, clearing skies, cooler, lows near 41, winds turning E 4-7 MPH.

Thursday, partly to mostly sunny skies, mild, high 65, winds E 3-5 MPH.

Thursday night, mainly moonlit skies, perhaps a passing cloud or two, lows roll back near 40, with winds ENE 2-5 MPH.

Friday, plenty of sunshine and mild, high 68.

Saturday, continued sunny and pleasant, a tad warmer, high 70.

Sunday, sunny skies and seasonable, high 65.

Monday, bright blue skies and comfortable, high 64.

Tuesday, sunny and warmer still, high 70.

A gorgeous set of days on tap for us here in the South Central Michigan Weather Zone, I hope that you have a great day!  Blessings.