National Weather Service United States Department of Commerce

Hurricane Isaias Approaching the Gulf Coast; Remnants of Rachel to Impact the Southwest U.S.

Hurricane Isaias is expected to make landfall along the U.S. northern Gulf Coast late Friday or early Saturday. A life-threatening storm surge is expected along the coast with damaging wind gusts extending well inland. Areas of heavy rainfall are forecast throughout much of the Southeast U.S. The remnants of Rachel will bring gusty winds and heavy rainfall to the Southwest U.S. this weekend. Read More >

Overall, the month of January in Southwest Lower Michigan is expected to be warmer and wetter than normal.  That is not to say we will not have periods of very cold temperatures,  but that the warmer periods, when the entire month is averaged, will prevail.  For the last 10 Januarys, 5 were warmer than normal, 2 were colder than normal and 3 where near normal between 2011 and 2020.  As for precipitation, there was 5 Januarys that were wetter than normal, 4 were near normal and there was 1 below normal precipitation for the Januarys between 2011 and 2020.  There is clearly a trend toward wetter Januarys.  This used area wide data all of our long term climate stations averaged together.