Recently, a meteorology student that I know, posted on twitter two videos that got him to pursue meteorology as a career…
Since I’m much older, and by coincidence he lives next door to where I grew up. His mother was my next door neighbor.
I didn’t have videos to inspire me back then, but I had events that inspired me. Those event are…
- August 23, 1972 (I told you I was old) – I was 6 y/o and just getting ready to start the second grade. I remember Grandma and Grandad there and the thunderstorm from that night. The next day we heard about and then searched for the storm damage. We were told it was a tornado, but the official report from Storm Data was straight line winds. We saw one trailer upside down and another destroyed. Then we followed the tree damage from M-89 (about 3 miles east of Fennville) to downtown Saugatuck.
- April 3-4, 1974 The Super Outbreak – As an 8 y/o, I was already intrigued by the weather from the previous event, and in the second grade, Mrs. Schra got a chalk mark-able weather map and I asked to take it home and copy the weather onto the map and present it the next day in class. However, we had visited my aunt and uncle in Texas previously. Along the way, we passed Joplin, MO, one of many towns mentioned that day from the tornadoes that struck the country. That stuck with me.
- The storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald November 9-10, 1975 – I still remember the storm, and hearing from TV 13 out of Grand Rapids about the wind gusts that were hurricane force. We woke up to our glass doors on our fireplace, with what looked like pictures of ghostly dancers from the ashes in the fireplace being blown around and deposited on the glass.
- The Winter Storm of 1977 – As a kid, we lived for snow days, with lots of wind, for the drifts that it would create. This one dumped a lot of snow and then blew it around for 3 days. We were out of school for a week. We walked about a mile and a half (as a family) into town with a sled, picked up some groceries, then walked back. When the snow plows finally came through 59th Street, the snow banks were over my dad’s head (6′ 4″)!
- The Blizzard of 1978 – This was a bigger storm, and were again out of school for about a week. It also came about the same time as the storm the previous year. I had gotten a Skilcraft Weather Station for my 12th birthday and had to do some major adjusting when the air pressure dropped so low.
And those are the events that shaped me into becoming a meteorologist.
10/28 – As mentioned in the previous post, the cold front began to form waves of low pressure along it. As they moved from south to north, they would bring more moisture. In this case, more light rain and drizzle. Temperatures remain warm enough that no snow fell during the day.
10/29 – We begin the march of the Alberta Clippers, which seems to really usher our winter. Of course, they aren’t the only lows we get, but they are the main low pressure systems that seem to affect us. So the clipper on the map, that is moving from NW Ontario, into Lake Superior helps to push the stalled front that has been over us for a couple of days east by the evening. High pressure then built into the region and cooled things off.
10/31 – So the snow that we got by the morning remained as we stayed in the cold side of the low pressure as it moved up into Lake Erie, and on into New England. This brought snow across northern Michigan, mainly in northern lower Michigan. While the snow map on the morning of the 1st is snow depth, it was pretty much the snow we got from the night of the 10/31.
11/1 – As the system from the day before left, the high pressure built into the region and lake effect snow continued, in some areas. Snow, overnight, wasn’t as big of of a deal as the warmer air during the day began to melt the 3-5″ from the night before, so that there were bare patches around the region, and roads were just wet.
11/2 – The rain/snow mix in the morning began to quickly diminish as the colder air began to move into the region. By the afternoon, a lot of the snow on the ground had disappeared. However, the air mass began to get colder, and the fetch over the Great Lakes began to lengthen. This lead to some decent lake effect bands that produced some significant amounts in the area, that in the office we call, “
11/3 -The winds began to veer through the morning from west to northwest, and we headed into our first real lake effects snow period. We did have some locations mix with rain, but overall, we got snow bands in eastern upper and northwest lower Michigan.
10/22 – During the morning, the dry slot moved over the region and even cleared the sky out for a time. At 530 am, when I arrived home from my night shift, I could see the stars overhead. However, the winds were already picking up again.
10/23 – The winds continued to gust to gale force on Lake Michigan in the morning. By the end of the day, the winds had diminished. However, the rain didn’t stop as lake effect rain showers continued into the afternoon. And just when you thought the rain was done, a wave moved up the front, and produced more rain over the region. Although, most didn’t fall in Gaylord.
10/24 – After the cold front went through the state, high pressure built in the state and the weather dried out. Temperatures warmed up a bit.
10/25 – The High pressure remained for another day, but things began to cloud up, as the next system started to move out of the Gulf Coast and north into Southern Plains. Not as warm, because of the clouds.
10/27 – By the morning of the 27th, the now extratropical low was occluding and beginning to move on. High pressure built into the region and the cold front to the west began to form waves on it, as an area of low pressure at 500 mb(~18,000ft) was developing over the Rockies. As the upper low moved out, the cold front began to slowly move to the east and into Michigan. The precipitation was mainly light rain from the morning of the 27th.
10/17 – The drier air finally won out by late in the day. The rain was light as is most lake effect rains. Eventually, there were some breaks in the clouds late, and the sky cleared overnight. 
10/19 – As the high retreated to the east, the warm air continued to move into the region, and brought us to above normal temperatures, approaching 60°. However, the cold front moved into the region, and brought a little rain to northern Michigan. 
10/20 – The cold front moves through northern Michigan in the morning, The front was rather dry, as little rain fall with it. When it went through. High pressure then quickly built in and the sky cleared out. Temperatures again were above normal. 
