DETROIT – It was another beautiful holiday weekend day, with abundant sunshine amidst some puffy fair-weather cumulus clouds. Factor that with highs near 80 degrees (27 degrees Celsius) and a nice breeze, and there sure wasn’t much to complain about.
An approaching cold front is behaving itself and will cross our area overnight tonight with scattered showers that did not mar our Sunday afternoon and won’t touch our Labor Day! Gotta love when Mother Nature does this on a holiday weekend. Lows by dawn Monday should be in the mid-to-upper 80s (14 degrees Celsius), with the west winds diminishing to 5 to 10 mph.
Tonight’s sunset is at 8 p.m., and Monday’s sunrise is at 7:04 a.m.
Labor Day and the threat of storms ahead
Mostly sunny on Monday -- a delightful day off work for most and the start of Rosh Hashanah for some (L’Shana Tova Tikateivu if you are celebrating!) -- with highs in the mid-to-upper 70s (25 to 26 degrees Celsius). West wind at 8 to 13 mph.
Mostly clear Monday night, with lows in the low-to-mid 50s (11 to 13 degrees Celsius).
Tuesday is the day of concern. First and foremost, most of -- not all of -- the daytime hours should be dry, with at least partly cloudy skies. It will become windy during the afternoon, with southwest winds increasing to 15 to 25 mph and gusts to 30 mph, pushing highs into the low-to-mid 80s (28 to 29 degrees Celsius).
Then, a line of strong-to-severe storms crosses the area Tuesday evening. I expect a solid line to develop -- not just scattered storms -- so we’re all at risk, although I feel that the greatest risk for damaging wind gusts, hail, and possibly even a tornado is the farther north and west you are in our area due to the fact that the storms will arrive there earlier when it’s warmer, not to mention the position of a core of stronger jet stream winds crossing southern lower Michigan.
These storms will also have torrential downpours, so some localized flooding is possible, although that may be tempered by the fact that this front will be moving eastward pretty steadily, thus limiting the amount of time any storm will be overhead.
Obviously, some of the thermodynamic and dynamic details of this system could change -- remember that we’re still two days away. We will keep you updated here on ClickOnDetroit.com, Local 4, and on the free Local4Casters app.
If you’re one of the few who doesn’t have our app yet, I strongly urge you to download it NOW by searching WDIV in the app store -- it’s right there. If you’re in your basement and the power goes out, your cell phone is your only connection with the outside world -- and our app has real-time radar and, if you have notifications turned on, it even sends you alerts when dangerous weather is approaching (not to mention the warnings themselves). Remember that the nation’s best weather app is FREE.