DETROIT – It wasn’t a lot of rain, but at least we got some. Now it’s back to the good stuff -- more gorgeous fall weather is on the way. That begins with Wednesday night, as skies will clear and the wind becomes very light. Lows will generally be in the low 50s, or 11 degrees Celsius, for our Canadian friends across the river who depend upon my forecasts, and chillier in our typically colder rural areas. North-northeast winds will blow at 2 to 5 mph.
Thursday will be mostly sunny. It will be a glorious day, with highs in the low 70s (22 degrees Celsius). East winds will blow at 4 to 8 mph.
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NOTE: Those of you west of Lake Erie could potentially see some lake effect clouds come in off the lake for the first part of the afternoon due to the east wind, but they should break up pretty quickly.
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Thursday’s sunrise is at 7:14 a.m., and Thursday’s sunset is at 7:42 p.m.
It will be mostly clear Thursday night, with lows in the low to mid-50s (12-13 degrees Celsius). The east wind described above could promote some fog development near the big lakes.
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Friday will be mostly sunny with highs in the mid- to upper 70s (25-26 degrees Celsius).
Increasing clouds will arrive Friday evening, with rain (and possibly a rumble of thunder) developing well after our high school football games are over. Lows will be in the low to mid-60s (17-18 degrees Celsius).
Weekend outlook
I’m starting to get a better handle on the Saturday rain, although remember that we’re still three days out. Timing will be critical and could change.
But Wednesday's computer models seem to be converging on a solution that has showers and possible thunderstorms in the area Saturday morning, and possibly into the first part of the afternoon. If the models are correct with the cold front’s timing, rain should end from west to east during the afternoon. That would be huge news for those of you heading to the Michigan-Colorado game in Ann Arbor (remember, it’s a 3:30 p.m. kickoff, which that really helps).
The one wildcard here is Tropical Storm Julia off the southeast coast. Throughout my nearly 34-year career, I’ve noticed that these tropical systems sometimes slow down the weather pattern, and the computer models don’t always pick up on this. It’ll be interesting to watch this development (or non-development) over the next couple of days.
Highs Saturday should be in the upper 70s to near 80 degrees (26-27 degrees Celsius).
It will become partly cloudy Saturday night, with lows in the low 60s (16 degrees Celsius).
Sunday will be partly cloudy, with highs in the upper 70s (26 degrees Celsius), making this the second weekend in a row with rain on Saturday and a nice day on Sunday.
It will be mostly clear Sunday night, with lows in the upper 50s (14-15 degrees Celsius). It will be mostly sunny on Monday, with highs in the upper 70s (26 degrees Celsius).
Next week
Monday night will be mostly clear, with lows near 60 degrees (16 degrees Celsius).
It will be partly cloudy on Tuesday, with highs near 80 degrees (27 degrees Celsius).
Wednesday will be mostly sunny, with highs in the low 80s (28 degrees Celsius).
Typhoon Meranti update
Just a reminder for those of you interested in hurricanes affecting the U.S. or typhoons in the west Pacific, our Local4Casters app has a great Tropical Tracker layer that lets you track any storm in the world.
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Here’s the image of Typhoon Meranti heading into China. If you’re looking at this on the app, just tap any dot in the storm’s history or forecast path, and an information box pops up with the relevant details. It’s a great tool.
As for the latest on Meranti, stats from the Joint Typhoon Warning Center has maximum sustained winds of 140 mph near the storm’s eye, with gusts approaching 170 mph. The storm lashed the southern tip of Taiwan, but it would have been much worse (possibly catastrophic) had the storm tracked just 20-30 miles farther north.
Meranti is now moving northwest at 12 mph and approaching the Chinese coast, with hurricane conditions affecting Fujian province tonight.
I did receive some very good news Wednesday from my good friend, Stephen Rancourt, who presents the weather on TV in Shanghai.
"The southern coastline of Fujian province got a bath today, but those mountains running down the length of Taiwan once again saved the south east coast of the Chinese mainland from a lot of the rainfall," Rancourt said. "(It) also slowed the winds down by about 50 kph (30 mph). Landfall in Fujian is slated for about 5 or 6 a.m. Thursday morning local time, and it’s a holiday tomorrow, to boot -- lots of folks’ travel plans have been ruined down there."