NBC25 Meteorologist Janet Van De Winkle looks back at 2011's biggest weather events.
2011 was a turbulent and record-breaking year for Mid-Michigan weather, and as soon as we rang in 2011, we broke a record high. Temperatures started off at 55 degrees in Flint and 52 in Saginaw.
Moving on to the 3rd week - which is on average the coldest week of the year - Bad Axe fell down to -17, and Caro fell to -14. Saginaw saw snow every day but 3, in the month of January.
It was then the snowiest February that Flint had ever seen - over 31 inches! And we can all remember the Groundhog Day storm bringing a whopping 9.9 inches to Flint, and just over 11 in Saginaw. Light snow followed a few days later, bringing snow depths past a foot. Then on the 17th, Saginaw broke a record high at 53 degrees. Flint also set record-breaking highs on the 17th and 18th with temperatures at 54 and 56 respectively, which of course melted all that snow. Needless to say, a few days later, Mid-Michigan was again coated with about 10 inches of snowfall.
When March rolled around, our hopes of an early spring were squashed. Between March 5th and 11th, Bad Axe picked up 7 inches and half a foot in Lexington. Then, between March 22nd and 23rd, the Saginaw Valley picked up over 8 and a half inches!
The Winter of 2011 wrapped up with 69.9" of snow in flint- 9th snowiest of all time, and 70.7" in Saginaw- 8th snowiest of all time.
Moving on to April, where summer and winter we're battling it out! We had measurable rain 18 days of the month in Flint - nearly 5 and a half inches! On April 10th, flint and Saginaw got up to 83 degrees and then a week later, an inch and half of snow fell!
May wasn't any dryer either, with over 7 and a half inches flooding Flint and 17 inches for the whole spring season. Flint shattered the previous record by a staggering 3.2 inches. Tri-Cities on the other hand recorded their 10th wettest spring. To wrap up the month of May, I chased a storm from the west side of the state that produced a 200 yard wide EF1 tornado that destroyed many homes in Parish back over to Linwood, I was the first one on the scene and those were the pictures that I took.
Heading into June, it was much drier… in fact our neighbors in Detroit saw their driest June in 115 years. Sebawing experienced wind gusts at 80-90 mph on June 8th when severe thunderstorms crossed the state. Other than a few 90 degree days, the rest of June was pretty typical.
In July, it was HOT with 27 out of 31 days above average. 14 of which in Flint were in the 90s. The average high temperature was 88.8 degrees, which is 6.8 degrees above normal! And on July 21st, we almost got to the triple digit mark… but settled for 99 instead. And you may remember the story of a tornado touching down near Sanford Lake in which a Mid-Michigan teenager captured footage from her phone on the 25th of July.
The cooler weather came to a screeching halt in October when a strong ridge set up across the country bringing a warm spell across Mid-Michigan with 9 days of temperatures about 70, and 5 above 80. Temperatures then fell to below normal with our first widespread freeze at the end of the month.
November brought us our first snowfall where Saginaw saw over 6 inches, and Auburn saw 8! Overall it was a warm month with temperatures trending 6 degrees above normal.
So far for the month December, it's another warm one with temperatures more than 5 degrees above normal, and a lack of snowfall up until this week.
