RECORD RAINFALL FIRST 2 WEEKS OF SEPTEMBER

The first two weeks of September have seen record rainfall in Southwest Michigan.

Ex-Hurricane Gustav brought 3 to 5 inches of rain across part of the region on the 4th.

Then, from the 12th into the 13th, another 3 to 5 inches of rain fell across part of

southern Lower Michigan as very moist air streamed up from the southwest across a slow

moving front. Finally on the 14th, the remnants of Ike brought 2 to 4 inches of rain

across areas water-logged by the earlier rain, resulting in widespread flooding. The

flooding may have been worse except for two factors: The heavy rain followed a very dry

stretch of weather in August, which had reduced river flows and water levels to the point

of drought conditions. Also, the remant low pressure from Hurricane Ike was moving quickly,

limiting the amount of rain that it brought to the already saturated ground of southern Lower

Michigan.

Below is a list of some of those sites with record rainfall for the period September 1-15 and the

previous record.

Site Rainfall 2008 Previous Record & year

Below is a chart that shows the normal rainfall in Battle Creek for

September (red line), the record wet September (green /1988)

and the rain thus far in September 2008 (blue). Notice how far

ahead of the record year the current rainfall is for Battle Creek.

NOAA's National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office