The first half of this week will feature beautiful fall weather with sunshine and highs in the 60s. This is right on target for early October since 60s is where we should be this time of year. We certainly recommend enjoying pleasant fall days like this because we all know cold, wet, and cloudy days often come for a visit as the seasons change and we get closer to winter. So far, the coldest temperature Mt. Pleasant has seen this fall is 35°, which occurred on the morning of Friday, September 30th. We won’t be that cold for a few more days, but another cold front will likely change that for the second half of this week. First, let’s focus on highs today and tomorrow, which should look something like this:
Clouds will begin to increase on Wednesday as the cold front approaches. There is a chance for a few showers Wednesday/Thursday timeframe, but moisture looks limited, so no significant rainfall totals are forecast. Friday and through the weekend, looks much cooler with highs in the 50s or possibly stuck in the 40s one of these days if we see overcast skies. At this point, although the air moving in from Canada does bring us this chilly air, it looks to be a fairly dry airmass as well, so any cloud formations would be predominantly driven by cold air aloft combined with daytime heating or due to lake effect. Rain showers could also form by these two mechanisms, but the chance for this being a widespread issue appears low. Therefore, we are favoring that sunshine will still be in the mix this weekend as well. In addition, this chilly airmass will likely lead to more frost and possibly freezing conditions at night, which could end the growing season for good. Right now, areas along the US-10 corridor and points north have seen the growing season end, but it will take more cold to end it for M-20 and points south. Here is an early look at low temperatures Sunday morning, which is 6 days from now. Lower-30s are favored nearly a week ahead of time and it is possible these values could trend colder as the week progresses:
In the end, enjoy the first half of this week and prepare for temperatures cold enough to possibly end the growing season for all of us officially by this weekend.
How does the weather affect fall colors?
We are approaching the time of year where the landscape is dotted with the beautiful colors of fall. Did you know that the weather is a part of why we see these colors? As we move into the fall, temperatures begin to cool off and we see less sunlight (which because the days shorter and the incoming sunbeams are at a less direct angle). When this happens, the leaves food-making processes slow and eventually stop, leading to a breakdown of chlorophyll, the color that makes leaves green. Once this happens other colors like yellow, orange, and red become visible in the leaf. As for Mid-Michigan’s fall color peak, we’ve got a bit longer to wait in part due to the warmer than average September, but we’ll get our fix of fall colors later this month.
Mt. Pleasant Almanac for This Week:
Almanac Information is a way to look at normal and record high and low temperatures for this time of year. The normal temperatures are based on the 30-year average high and low for that date between 1991 and 2020. For example, if you take the high temperature for every September 26th between 1991 and 2020 and calculate the average of all 30 values, the result would be 70. Therefore, the normal high for today is 70°. Record high and low temperature data goes back to 1895. Sunrise and sunset data is also provided. All information is valid for Mount Pleasant.
October 3rd
Normal High/Low: 66°/45°
Record High: 85° 1953
Record Low: 23° 1974
Sunrise: 7:39AM
Sunset: 7:16PM
October 4th
Normal High/Low: 66°/45°
Record High: 85° 1951
Record Low: 25° 1974
Sunrise: 7:40AM
Sunset: 7:15PM
October 5th
Normal High/Low: 66°/44°
Record High: 86° 1916
Record Low: 25° 1965
Sunrise: 7:41AM
Sunset: 7:13PM
October 6th
Normal High/Low: 65°/44°
Record High: 86° 1900
Record Low: 19° 1997
Sunrise: 7:43AM
Sunset: 7:11PM
October 7th
Normal High/Low: 65°/43°
Record High: 83° 1997
Record Low: 22° 1964
Sunrise: 7:44AM
Sunset: 7:09PM
October 8th
Normal High/Low: 64°/43°
Record High: 87° 1916
Record Low: 23° 1907
Sunrise: 7:45AM
Sunset: 7:08PM
October 9th
Normal High/Low: 64°/43°
Record High: 85° 1997
Record Low: 22° 1929
Sunrise: 7:46AM
Sunset: 7:06PM
Mid-Mitten Weather View’s Mission is to serve people by providing timely information to help keep you safe and make decisions based on the weather. We are passionate about educating both our forecasters and our followers about how weather forecasting works and how we can be best prepared when impactful weather threatens. Our team consists of both CMU alumni degreed meteorologists and current student forecasters from the University. For daily updates, we welcome you to check out our Facebook Page! We look forward to catching you back here next week for another weekly 7-Day forecast update.
-Weather Forecast by CMU Student Forecasters Isaac Cleland and Scott Thomas