Michigan's weekend weather: On the verge of summery, One period of rain

It really looks like a pretty nice weekend for enjoying Michigan’s outdoors. We are also in desperate need of rain, and some of that rain will be coming.

We are going to have a fairly warm weekend compared to October normals. Our normal high temperature this weekend is 64 degrees to 66 degrees in southern Michigan and 62 degrees to 64 degrees in northern Michigan. When we are expecting afternoon temperatures in the 70s it’s pretty warm for this time of year.

Whether you like this idea or not for the weekend, we need rain for our valuable landscape plants in our yards. Any established trees and shrubs are probably okay in this dry spell. Plants put in the ground this year and especially in the last two months are at risk of dying due to the dryness. So we need rain, and we need to water these plants. This weekend’s rain will occur mostly Saturday night.

Here’s the rain areas forecast from Friday evening to Sunday evening.

Friday evening will be beautiful and should be clear enough to see the northern lights. Saturday will also be a dry day and very nice. Saturday night is when a few hour period of showers will move across Lower Michigan. The Upper Peninsula will also have the showers Saturday night.

Southeast Lower Michigan may still have an hour or two of showers Sunday morning and then dry out for the afternoon.

Rainfall in northern Lower could be meaningful and over one-half inch. Rainfall in southern Lower will be more spotty and may leave many spots still dry.

Here’s the total rainfall for Saturday night.

Temperatures are going to be warm, but probably not what we would call truly summery. Here are the high temperatures for Saturday and Sunday.

So we have a great weekend to get out and enjoy Michigan’s beauty and landscape. You may have to wait for a few showers to end Sunday morning, but that’s about it. You should also grab the garden hose and water some freshly planted trees and shrubs.