WEST MICHIGAN — It’s no secret that things have been dry around West Michigan the last several weeks. As our graphic shows, Grand Rapids has only had .12″ of rain since July 1. If this had been a normal month for precipitation, we would have already tallied 1.3″. That’s a deficit for the month of already 1.1″.
Since June 1, we’ve only recorded 2.6″ of rain. Normally, we would have had five inches. A deficit of 2.4″. In summary, we have been dry in the short term. That said, the longer term numbers show something else. As of January 1, Grand Rapids had 19.3″ of liquid precipitation. Normally, we would have had 18.6″. So for the entire year thus far, we are actually running a slight surplus of .66″.
The United States Drought monitor updates weekly on Thursday morning. It will be interesting to see if NOAA places Michigan in an “abnormally dry” status. I can tell you that some farmers in southern Kent County in Gaines Township are already seeing their corn crops wither and their soybeans completely burned out. So we need some good old-fashioned rain! We should also note that there are several cities, townships, and counties that have “no burn” orders in effect due to the dry conditions and fires that can easily get out of hand.
Get the complete forecast at www.fox17online.com/weather.
