I hate to complain about the weather, but...

Cooler September Ahead

August 27th, 2009 at 11:12 am by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather

The summer of 2009 (the months of June, July and August) will go into the record books as cooler and wetter (despite a dry stretch in July) than average.  We’ve only made 90 degrees three times this summer.  We average 9.5 days of 90-degrees here in Grand Rapids.  Last summer we had only four 90-degree days.  We’re over 13″ of rain since June 1, already nearly 3″ above average and that doesn’t count what we’ll get between now and Monday.   Despite the rain, we’ve only had 12 days this summer when we’ve seen lightning or heard thunder.   The two biggest storm days were the big wind and rain dump (up to 8″) along with 3 tornadoes on June 19 in the Holland area and Allegan Co., and the very strong wind that pushed from Grand Haven/Muskegon to northern Kent Co. on August 9.  Michigan has had only 13 severe weather watches this summer.  The past four years have brought at least 30.  The pattern looks cooler for the coming month than September of last year.  I wouldn’t be surprised if we wound up 3-5 degrees cooler this September than September 2008.

A cool September doesn't bother me.  Neither did the cool summer, but all the rain without any good thunderstorms does.  At least every other weekend was 15 degrees below normal with rain.  Which leads me to this weekend.  Tomorrow morning I head out for a bachelor party on the Manistee River in Northern Michigan.  The forecast calls for highs in the 50's and 60's with showers Friday and Saturday.  I am sure we will still have our fun though.