Michigan Weather Snapshot: Near-normal temperatures and a good deal of sun

As we start off our Wednesday, we’ll note that the day ahead won’t be 100% cloud free like yesterday, but there will still be plenty of sun to go around. Dew point temperatures are in the teens between 7 a.m.-8 a.m., which means the air is dry, and combine that with clear skies overnight, lows were able to drop into the teens and 20s.

Some of the low temperatures that have been observed so far this morning include 20 in Fint, 24 in Grand Rapids, Saginaw and Lansing, and 22 in Ann Arbor. A few even colder spots include 13 in Cadillac and 5 in Grayling, although this is a typical cold spot in the state. Marquette and Newberry have dropped to 10 degrees.

Here’s something funny for you: The Kalamazoo weather station went offline after falsely reporting a wind speed of 693mph yesterday at 9 p.m.. After coming back online at 6 a.m. today, it is reporting a temperature of 28. Under calm winds and clear skies, the low temperature typically occurs just after sunrise, although that is not necessarily the case this morning because any light breeze stirs the air and warms it up a few degrees.

With the dry air in place and a sunny start to the day, temperatures will begin to warm fairly quickly, but we are still being offset by a northeast wind, so our highs this afternoon won’t do much better than near normal. The following map shows normal temperatures for 1/3 of the way through the month of March. “Normals” are based on climatology, which currently takes into account the average of the 30-year timeframe from 1991 through 2020.

Some clouds will begin to move in as the day goes on, but these will be at medium to high levels in the sky, which means they won’t completely block out the sun like low clouds do. As a result, we’re starting sunny before we’ll call in partly to mostly sunny later this afternoon, depending on your location. It should feel similar to yesterday, but with the strength of the sun decreased just a bit through some of these clouds, which we can refer to as filtered sunshine.

The coldest areas today will be in the U.P. and the eastern side of the state near Lake Huron due to the northeast wind off the lake. Highs will be in the 30s here, but inland areas will warm back into the 40 to 45 degree range just like yesterday, with perhaps some areas near Lake Michigan topping out between 44 and 48 degrees.

I’ll leave you with this: The map of high temperatures I think makes the most sense for this afternoon. Enjoy the normal early March weather and the sunshine!

©2023 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit mlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.