Get Yourself to the Beach: Heat Wave in Metro Detroit Forecast

Metro Detroit, MI — Sunglasses, check. Sunscreen, check. Lifejacket, check. 

If you can’t get to a lake this weekend, you know anyone with a swimming pool?

Saturday is setting up to be the hottest day of the year so far with temperatures in the mid-90s and a UV index of 9 on a 10-point scale, according to The Weather Channel.

The heat wave will be short-lived. By Sunday, more seasonal temperatures are forecast, with a high of 78.

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Southeast Michigan — including the counties of Oakland, Macomb, Wayne, Genesee, Livingston and Washtenaw — could see thunderstorms after 4 p.m. Friday, genrally along a line from Owosso to Detroit, as the warm front lifts into the area, the National Weather Service said in a hazardous weather statement.

Wind gusts of up to 60 mph are possible, though the Weather Service said the risk of severe weather is “marginal.”
Thunderstorms could continue through Saturday with the unstable air mass. Some could be severe, again with wind gusts up to 60 mph and large hail.

Here’s the weekend forecast:

• Friday: High near 79 under partly sunny skies, with a south wind around 9 mph. There’s a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 a.m., and the overnight low will be around 67 with a south wind of 7 to 10 mph.
• Saturday: A 30 percent chance  of showers and thunderstorms remains in the forecast. A west wind of 11 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 28 mph, will keep the air stirring. The Weather Channel expects the mercury to soar into the mid-90s, but the National Weather Service puts the high a bit lower, at 91. Overnight, there’s a 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. The low will be around 62, with a west wind of 11 to 16 mph becoming north after midnight.
• Sunday: It looks like a perfect day, with a high near 77 under sunny skies. North winds of 11 to 14 mph will gust as high as 28 mph. Overnight, temperatures will cool down to around 57.

Meteorologists have already warned of a hotter-than-normal summer, especially the last half of it, in Metro Detroit.Todd Crawford, chief meteorologist, for The Weather Company, an IBM Business, said the last half-dozen summers have been the hottest six-year stretch in the last 120 years, barely eclipsing the very hot 1930s.

“Model guidance shows a rather dramatic reversal of the background tropical Pacific forcing signal that would favor a hot summer again, especially across the northern U.S. and especially late,"  he said.

Well-above-average temperatures are expected this summer for the northern tier of states from the Pacific Northwest into the northern and central Plains, Great Lakes, mid-Atlantic and Northeast. 

The northern Plains and Upper Midwest are forecast to see temperatures the farthest above average, Crawford said.