DETROIT – Now that we’ve made it through the holiday weekend in great shape, weather-wise, it’s time to shift our desires toward getting some rain around here.
In case you missed the stats I showed yesterday morning on Local 4 News Today, in the months of May and June combined, we only received 3.50” of total rainfall (June was our 10th driest June on record). Given that most of that 3.50” of rain fell on just five of the 61 days, and also since average rainfall for those two months combined is nearly seven inches, that explains why last Friday’s light rain had very little impact on our very dry conditions. Fortunately, thunderstorms are in the forecast, and Mother Nature graciously decided to provide her own fireworks after we were done with ours! If you haven’t already, this is a good time to download the FREE Local4Casters weather app…just search under WDIV in the app store. Once you have the app, it opens right to the radar page, so it’s easy to track approaching weather. And best of all, the radar shows you the latest storm location anywhere in the country, and even in Europe! I used our app to approach incoming rain during my Pure Michigan vacation up north last week, and also watched the rain moving into London during some of the Wimbledon rain delays.
Today, however, will be yet another dry day…you won’t see anything around here on the app’s radar. Although we’ll have plenty of cloud cover to start, breaks of sunshine should develop through the day. Highs will be warmer than yesterday, and more humid, too…topping out in the mid to perhaps upper 80s (30° Celsius for our Canadian friends across the river). West-southwest wind at 5 to 10 mph. Today’s sunrise is at 6:03 AM, and today’s sunset is at 9:12 PM.
Becoming mostly clear tonight, with lows near 70° (21° Celsius)…the next three nights will be very uncomfortable sleeping weather for those of you without air conditioning. Making matters worse is that wind will be very light, if not dead calm outright, so there won’t be much breeze coming in the windows.
Mostly sunny to start our Wednesday, and it’ll be a hot and humid day with highs around 90° (33° Celsius). The morning should remain dry, but at least scattered thunderstorms are possible during the afternoon and early evening. Let’s hope we get some.
Storms end Wednesday evening, with muggy lows in the low 70s (22° Celsius).
Partly cloudy and continued hot and humid on Thursday, with highs in the upper 80s (32° Celsius). Widely scattered thunderstorms are possible Thursday afternoon, but not everybody will get one.
Still warm and muggy Thursday night, with lows in the low 70s (22° Celsius).
Friday brings our best chance of widespread thunderstorms. In addition, some of my computer models are projecting enough low-level instability and a strong enough wind field aloft to give us a chance for some strong storms. However, as has been the case all season long, will temperatures ALOFT cool enough to allow those storms to grow into strong ones? As I’ve explained before, an unstable atmosphere is one in which the air is cooler aloft than at the surface, and the greater the difference between those temperatures, the greater the instability. So, if the temperature aloft is relatively warmer, then that reduces the ability for accelerating that upward vertical motion needed to generate the strongest storms. I’ll keep a close eye on the forecast upper air data over the next couple of days and update you as soon as I develop greater confidence about that temperature profile aloft. Highs Friday should reach the upper 80s (31° Celsius) if the storms hold off until afternoon. If the storms come in earlier, then that’ll stop our temperature rise, of course, and keep us cooler than that. But it’ll still be a steamy day regardless.
Shower and thunderstorm chances continue Friday night as the cold front comes through. Lows in the mid 60s (19° Celsius).
Partly cloudy, breezy, cooler, and less humid on Saturday, with highs in the low to mid 80s (28-29° Celsius).
Mostly clear Saturday night…and we finally get a great night of sleeping weather once again…with lows near 60° (16° Celsius).
Mostly sunny and delightful on Sunday, with highs in the low 80s (28° Celsius).
Right now, it appears that mostly sunny skies should stay with us through the following Wednesday, with steady warming each day.