WEST MICHIGAN- It seems like I write a similar article on this every year, but it becomes magnified even more when it’s a holiday weekend: “Is it going to rain? My phone says it’s going to rain.”
This is your pretty standard app that you have on your phone for weather. It’s convenient when there’s nothing happening, but when it’s a very particular forecast, it becomes much less convenient when details are needed. A couple of things to note from the image above: first of all, it’s SURE not going to be sunny today. It’s been foggy just about all morning and the sun won’t come out until the evening. But you wouldn’t be able to tell that by looking at this forecast here. Second of all, notice some of the days for the weekend. It looks like it’s going to rain all day Sunday and Monday, when in reality, that’s not the case. These apps are populated solely by algorithms and computer generation, so there is little human element involved in your forecast. That’s why you’ll often see the change drastically in comparison to the numbers we show you on TV.
High pressure has settled in and will have an influence on our weather throughout the weekend as well, but it’s this weak disturbance off to our northwest that will create a few showers and thunderstorms this weekend. I would expect that you’re going to see very isolated t-storms possible overnight Friday into Saturday and perhaps early Sunday as well. Should you cancel your outdoor plans? No way.
I would expect that the weekend is going to be mostly dry. Will a few thunderstorms develop? Absolutely. These will likely send you indoors for 30 minutes or so, and you may even have to come off the water because they develop. But it’s not going to ruin the ENTIRE day like looking at the app may suggest. Just have a plan B, just in case.
I would say Friday looks the most likely to stay completely dry at this moment, with Monday not far behind. Notice how much different this graphic is than the app? Even so, looking at just these icons without any explanation isn’t too helpful.
At least with our app, I can edit the text inside of each individual day so that you’re able to stay up to speed with any changes. This will help you from being surprised by the lack of rain/isolated t-storms that may affect your weekend plans.
