Summer claws back

A fairly miserable little wave moved through the Great Lakes last week, bringing rain — too much in some instances — clouds and cooler weather throughout the region. It was a rather unpleasant weekend. By midweek, summer was ready to make a comeback, and nowhere appreciated that like Battle Creek. After a weekend of drear, temperatures were back up to 80 by Wednesday. Nice! Forecast.io had the forecast victory, thanks to that nice weater.
Actuals: Tuesday, High 73, Low 47
Wednesday – High 80, Low 55

Grade:B-C

Battle Creek, Michigan

One of our most recent forecasts was for Battle Creek, but that doesn’t mean we’ve forecast for Battle Creek recently. Vacation, woo! Back on the horse in Kellogg’s Country.

At 953AM, ET, Battle Creek was reporting a temperature of 59 degrees with overcast skies. Tightly wound low pressure was centered northwest of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, and moisture and clouds blanketed the Great Lakes. Rain showers were for the moment avoiding Battle Creek, though some light activity south of South Bend was on it’s way. Shower activity were retrograding across northern Michigan, indicative of how slowly this disturbance was moving.
The upper trough birthing this surface low is phased with the primary jet stream, found over Hudson Bay. Even though the feature is moving slowly at present, it has motivation to progress to the east, by way of the upper trough. The rain in the area is likely to abate today, with the overcast hanging on through tomorrow, but by Wednesday, clearer, drier air is on it’s way, expected to put a pause on autumn for the time being.
Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy, and a little bit warmer, High 71, Low 49
Wednesday – Clearing and warmer, High 77, Low 56

TWC: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy. Slight chance of a rain shower.High 72, Low 51
Wednesday – Partly cloudy skies. High 78, Low 54

AW: Tomorrow – Intervals of clouds and sunshine with a shower in places High 72, Low 55
Wednesday – Sunny much of the time and nice High 78, Low 55

NWS: Tomorrow – A slight chance of showers before 11am, then a slight chance of showers after 2pm. Partly sunny, High 71, Low 49
Wednesday – Sunny High 78, Low 53

WB: Tomorrow – Mostly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of rain showers, High 70, Low 51
Wednesday – Mostly sunny, High 76, Low 55

WN: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy, High 72, Low 49
Wednesday – Mostly sunny, High 78, Low 49

FIO: Tomorrow – Partly cloudy throughout the day. High 73, Low 48
Wednesday – Partly cloudy throughout the day. High 78, Low 52

Not exactly the most pleasant scenario, but it could be worse. Battle Creek has avoided the copious rains that this system brought to Chicagoland. Here is a deeper dive from Wood TV’s Matt Kirkwood.

Battle Creek, Michigan to Omaha, Nebraska

This road trip will be a little bit longer than our intra-Michigan trek yesterday, but it will still take only a day. We’ll cover 619 miles in just over 9 hours, as we skirt Chicago and pass through Des Moines into an underrated town. I think sometimes cities compensate for being in “boring” areas by being extremely interesting. Omaha is certainly interesting, and I would recommend a visit some day.

Battle Creek, Michigan

While today in Michigan is pretty nice (even though I got the road trip backwards! It was supposed to be Jackson to Battle Creek! I digress) there is a weak perturbation moving through the Upper Midwest that will change all that. Excepect some scattered showers and isolated thunderstorms to roll in to the area tomorrow evening, which means we will intercept on the way to Omaha. There will be a chance of these pop up showers – very few and far between – on the south side of Chicago, with the tail of the boundary stationary through southern Iowa. leading to scattered showers mostly south of I-80. Again, even if we see any rainshowers among the corn and Chicago traffic, they will be short lived. Potentially heavy, but short lived. Omaha is great, though, and shouild be drier than points eas.t.

Omaha, Nebraska

Battle Creek, Michigan to Jackson, Michigan

It is not a long drive that we intend to take tomorrow through Lower Michigan. It’s less than an hour and 53 miles from Battle Creek to Jackson. The Google Maps pace is 60mph, but I’ve driven I-94 in Michigan. We’ll be going faster than 60mph.

Battle Creek, Michigan

There really isn’t a lot to say here, honestly. Michigan is a nice enough state, and there are a surprising number of wineries. Not a lot of weather coming through, though. There is high pressure over the Great Lakes, with some mid layered overcast in the northern part of the lakes, but we are on the south side of Michigan, so just enjoy Jackson, I guess!

Jackson, Michigan