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Beautiful weather for Mother’s Day, but rain is coming

Posted at 6:23 AM, May 08, 2016
and last updated 2016-05-08 06:24:11-04

WEST MICHIGAN — After a gorgeous Saturday with plenty of sunshine and a high of 73° in Grand Rapids, Mother’s Day is looking fantastic as well. It will be a little cooler in the wake of yesterday’s cold front, but still about average for this time of year with highs in the upper 60s.

There are a few showers on radar as of this writing over parts of northern Lower Michigan, but our forecast models suggest this rain will tend to dissipate and miss us to the southeast. Notice that Future Track HD just has a few sprinkles over the Thumb late this afternoon:

Future Track

There is also a broader area of showers — even a few embedded thunderstorms — that we’re tracking further to the southwest of us. The cold front that cleared West Michigan yesterday is getting hung up over the central Plains, and is triggering this activity. This is how the surface map looks as of this early morning writing:

Clouds and Radar

Notice, however, the area of high pressure south of Minneapolis. This high will act as a temporary buffer against this shower activity as it tries to move northeastward tomorrow. I think dry, stable air underneath this high will keep us rain free for the most part on Monday.

Future Track HD suggests some showers will break out, however, on Monday afternoon just south of Grand Rapids:

Future Track Rain Totals

Although I don’t agree with the northward placement of these showers, some of our communities close to the Indiana state line could indeed get some Monday afternoon rain. We’ll see this rain threat spread northward Monday night into Tuesday, impacting most of the FOX 17 viewing area by Tuesday with showers likely and even a rumble or two of thunder. The showers will keep things on the cool side on Tuesday, but expect a spike in temperatures on Wednesday as a warm front lifts to our north.