Frosty temps won't last long. Get Bill Steffen's weekday forecast

We've had a hard freeze this Monday morning.

A freeze warning has been in effect this Monday morning. Most low temperatures are bottoming out in the mid-upper 20s. With mostly clear skies and calm or nearly calm winds, lakeshore areas could be just as cold as inland areas this Monday morning.

On Tuesday morning, there could be some scattered, mainly light frost, but after that, I don’t see any more frost the rest of this week into early next week.

The past couple of nights, we’ve been enjoying a waxing (more of the moon is visible each successive night) crescent moon. The bright star to the west in the evening is the planet Venus. To the left in the southwestern sky is the planet Jupiter.

This is the Severe Weather Outlook Map for Tuesday/Tuesday night. No areas are outlined for severe weather, but they have outlined an area with a chance of a non-severe thunderstorm from Illinois to northwest Pennsylvania … in Michigan, that’s along and south of I-94.

Here’s some good news … there were no reports of severe weather anywhere in the U.S. on Sunday … none … zip … nada!

Contrast Sunday to last Friday. We’re up to 790 severe reports from Friday afternoon/night, including 72 tornadoes. It’s amazing how the weather pattern can change in just a few days. The 790 severe reports look like the most severe reports in a single day since May 26, 2024, or nearly two years ago.

We had three wind damage reports in southwest Michigan … near Watervliet, Plainwell and a 3-mile-long damage path near Moline.

Here are tornado warnings by state so far this year. Illinois has the most, and Wisconsin is in second place. Michigan has issued nearly twice as many tornado warnings as Kansas. California issued six tornado warnings compared to just one in Nebraska. Pretty weird.

Wisconsin had 23 tornadoes last week. They average 23 during an entire year. Three of those 23 tornadoes last week were EF3. Up until last week, Wisconsin had just 4 EF tornadoes in the past 15 years combined!

Here’s a look at sunset at Muskegon Sunday evening (April 19). The water temperature at the Holland Channel was up to 56 on Sunday. At the Port Sheldon buoy, the water temperature is 54, and at the Muskegon buoy it’s 53. The Reeds Lake water temperature is 52.

Sunrise was at 6:52 a.m. and sunset at 8:30 p.m. Daylight continues to increase at the rate of around 2.5 minutes per day. The average high temperature in Grand Rapids will reach 60 degrees today, the average low temperature is now 39.

Sunday’s high temperatures ranged from 51 at Battle Creek and Kalamazoo to a chilly 29 at Sault Ste. Marie. Grand Rapids peaked at 47. It was cooler at the lake with highs of 42 at the Holland Beach and 41 at the Muskegon Beach.

Friday/Friday night there were 150 tornado warnings issued in the contiguous U.S. and 311 severe thunderstorm warnings.

We should see a dry 5 days giving river levels a chance to go downward. Grand Rapids has had 2.5 times average rainfall (252%) since March 1.

5-day forecast

• Monday: It’ll be cool today, but with sunshine and relatively light winds (W-SW 5-10 mph), it’ll be a nice day. Chilly with increasing clouds. Expect a high of 48 degrees and a low of 42 degrees. Tonight will be mostly cloudy and breezy.
• Tuesday: After a cool start to Tuesday, temperatures are headed above average again Tuesday afternoon and beyond. It will be windy in the morning with intermittent clouds. Expect a high of 62 degrees and a low of 46 degrees. The evening will be cloudy. There’s maybe a 20% chance of a shower or thundershower on Tuesday afternoon along and south of I-94.
• Wednesday: Partly sunny and nice. Expect a high of 66 degrees and a low of 50 degrees.
• Thursday: Warm with sun and clouds; high of 74 degrees. Thickening clouds and breezy late; low of 57 degrees.
• Friday: Considerable clouds and not as warm with a couple of showers and possible thunderstorm; breezy in the morning. High of 65 degrees, low of 45 degrees.

— Check out Bill Steffen's Substack channel.