Throwback Thursday: Michigan’s Record Rainfall

After weeks of a heat wave with temperatures between the high-80's and 90's, we finally are blessed with rain, glorious rain! But when was the rain record in Michigan set?

Remember when we got about five straight days of rain during "quarantine" that just really did not help our feeling "stuck inside"? Well, maybe it was not as much as we thought. It certainly didn't break any records.

According to Fox 17 West Michigan, the original record for 24-hour rainfall was set back in summer of 1914. On August 31st, 1914, Van Buren county received 9.78 inches of rainfall, a record that would not be beat for 105 years.

Enter the summer of 2019!

On July 20, 2019, Branch Township became the home of Michigan's record-breaking rainfall.

Fox 17 reported the extreme rainfall that day consisted of repeated thunderstorms moving over the same area(s) for hours on end which led to Branch Township accumulating 12.92 inches of rainfall.

Apparently, as Fox 17 reported, the amount of rainfall actually had to be investigated by the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids because initial reports said there was actually 13.53 inches received that day (July 20th).

Per the investigation, "A slight overcatch was noted by the gauge, and an adjustment factor was determined using a gauge calibration kit," said Fox 17. "After the calibration, a final value of 12.92 inches was determined."

Aside from having record-setting rainfall that summer, MLive reported that 2019 was Michigan's "wettest year" when compared to data spanning over 119 years.

All in all, we are coming up on now the one-year anniversary of setting the rainfall record here in Michigan and how will we celebrate? Well, ironically enough, with rain!

Will the record be broken yet again? We guess, all things considered, if it did happen this year it would be the least-interesting thing to happen in 2020.

While we're looking at Michigan's state record, here are some other records from around the United States: