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Snow Across the Great Lakes, Central Appalachians, and Northeast; Unsettled Weather in the West

Light to moderate snow will continue into Saturday over the Great Lakes, Central Appalachians, and Northeast. This weekend into next week, a series of atmospheric rivers will bring gusty winds, periods of heavy rain, and mountain snow to northern California and the Pacific Northwest. Colder temperatures are in store for the weekend from the Great Lakes to East Coast. Read More >

Upper Michigan Heat Wave 2013

Now that the heat and humidity have given way to cooler weather we thought we would take a look back at the recent heat wave over Upper Michigan. Overall, the duration of such warm temperatures both at day and night and the prolonged oppressive higher dewpoints and humidity ended up being most significant about this heat wave.  

The stretch of very warm conditions started on Saturday July 13th when the high temperature at our office in Negaunee township reached 86 degrees.  High temperatures then reached at least 85 degrees through Thursday July 18th. The warmest reading was a toasty 92 degrees achieved on Tuesday July 16th. The next day the mercury topped out at 91 degrees.  Neither day set a record high though and neither is even in the top 20 as far as warmest temperatures on record at NWS Marquette, MI.  By the way, the warmest high temperature on record at our office is 99 degrees set multiple times, the most recent time on July 28th 1988.

These high temperatures also came along with oppressive humidity – especially on Tuesday July 16th when dewpoints were in the lower 70s which resulted in heat indices around 100 degrees.  Keep in mind that when the dewpoint reaches above 60 degrees it starts to get uncomfortable and when it pushes past 70 degrees it can be downright miserable.

Here is a sampling of high temperatures across the area during this recent warm spell (warmest temp during the period is in red):

 

Locations July 13th July 14th  July 15th  July 16th July 17th   July 18th  July 19th
Ironwood 82 82 86 90 88 91 82
Houghton 83 83 82 87 85 89 75
Copper Harbor 79 77 80 89 83 79 77
Iron Mountain 87 88 91 94 93 94 87
NWS Marquette 86 88 89 92 91 85 79
Marquette Lakeshore 82 85 75 83 84 81 81
Escanaba 79 82 84 84 91 84 88
Menominee 82 84 86 88 88 91 90
Munising Lakeshore 89 90 85 95 85 86 82
Newberry 82 86 90 90 91 81 81
Manistique 72 77 82 81 89 77 87

 

So the question now is how did this stretch of warm temperatures compare to periods of hotter temperatures in previous years?

Consecutive Days with Max Temperatures at or Above 85 Degrees at NWS Marquette, MI:

 

Duration Year Dates Max Temp
10 Days 1995 June 15th - 24th 96
10 Days 1983 July 11th - 20th 95 (twice)
7 Days 2011 July 16th - 22nd 94 (twice)
6 Days 2013** July 13th - 18th 92
6 Days 2007 June 10th - 15th 91
6 Days 1991 August 25th - 30th 93

  

Consecutive Days with Low Temperatures at or Above 65 Degrees at NWS Marquette, MI:

 

Duration Year Dates Highest Min Temp
6 Days 2013** July 13th - 18th 68
5 Days 2010 July 3rd - 7th 68
5 Days 1988 July 5th - 9th 73
4 Days 2001 August 5th - 8th 71
4 Days 1995 August 8th - 11th 67