Good morning, Northern Michigan. This is Mike, and
this is Cup of Traverse City for the
12/18/2025.
So, today, we got some weird weather for
at least least for December 18.
Showers with a high near 44.
South wind around 15 miles an hour. Gust
as high as 30 miles an hour. Chance
precipitation is 100%.
New precipitation amounts between a tenth and a
quarter inch possible, and that's gonna be rain.
Tonight, rain showers before 10PM, and the rain
and snow showers between ten and eleven.
And then snow showers after eleven,
low around eighteen, breezy with a southwest wind
of 15 to 20 miles per hour becoming
northwest after midnight.
Winds could gust as high as 40 miles
an hour. Chance precipitation is 90%. Newest snow,
new snow accumulations around an inch possible. So
not terrible but here's the problem, all that
rain and wet roads and wet everything
and when the temperatures
dip we're gonna get a little ice accumulation
I would think,
that that's my guess, not, what the forecast
says.
And then tomorrow, snow showers mainly before 1PM,
patchy blowing snow before
noon,
steady temperatures around twenty one. Blustery.
That's a word you don't see in the
forecast a lot with a northwest wind of
15 to 20 miles an hour decreasing to
10 to 15
in the afternoon.
Winds could gust as high as 45.
Wow. It's not good flying weather.
New snow accumulation around two inches.
I was, looking out my window this morning
and
saw my, y'all o meter. That's a, snow
gauge,
and,
it's
open ground underneath my meter. There's still some
snow on the ground, obviously, but,
where I've got that meter set up, it's
down to zero. So,
it was up to, like, five or six.
So,
it is what it is. No big deal.
And speaking of flying,
Traverse City,
over
the
oh, Munson Hospital, actually,
was
was experimenting
back in May with don't drone deliveries
of, lab
samples and and stuff like that,
you know, just within a mile of Munson
Medical Center.
It's a pilot program,
through
Central Michigan University's Rural Health Excellence Institute and
the Traverse Connect,
and they partnered with
a company called blue
Blue Flight and
another company called Drone Up to complete the
region's first medical
drone delivery project.
So that was within a mile of
Munson Medical Center.
And, yeah, it's, funded by Michigan's Advanced Air
Mobility
Activation
Fund. The team conducted nearly 70 test flights
in May using drones to transport patient lab
samples within one mile radius of Munson Medical
Center. Officials say the technology could speed up
testing and treatment, especially for rural clinics.
And I guess this year, or next year,
2026,
they're gonna
expand that out and do some longer range
flights,
you know, beyond visual range. I guess,
these flights were all conducted,
I don't know. Somebody must stood on the
roof or something and controlled the drones or
at least watched them.
You know, that technology is getting
pretty
good.
One thing concerns me, you know, as a
pilot
is
they gotta stay
pretty low.
You know, I think drones are are, you
know, drones are limited to 400 feet to
without a waiver
of altitude above the ground.
And, you know, around airports, that might be
a problem because, you know, there's times when
I'm below
400 feet
in, you know, when I'm coming into land
or taking off,
You know, the pattern altitude's a thousand feet,
so that's, you know, well above
where the drones would be. But, yeah, hopefully,
they don't fly them near airports, and I'm
pretty sure the rules won't let them.
But that kinda
kinda,
leaves me out here living a mile from
the airport
or less than a mile. I'm probably,
half a mile from a runway.
And, you know, I I can't imagine Amazon's
gonna do don't drone deliveries in in my
neighborhood just because of that because it's close
to the,
close to the airport. It's it's technically in
class Delta airspace, which you need
permission from the controlling authority, which is, in
our case, the control tower,
at Traverse City Airport to fly a drone
in this area. I, you know, I've got
a drone and I'm technically not
legal to fly
the drone even in my yard, even if
I don't go go above the trees or
anything.
You know, I got 80 foot trees here,
so, you know, I suppose
if I stayed below the trees, probably wouldn't
be a problem, but, you know, technically, it's
not legal, and I don't do it anyway.
I I take my drone elsewhere and fly
it,
But, yeah, what do what do you think
about drone deliveries? I I think that's gonna
be kinda cool and and, you know, using
it
in a medical setting,
you know, might make sense.
You know, maybe
maybe your doctor's office is, you know, a
couple miles from the nearest lab, and
you can,
have a sample taken at the, doctor's office.
And the drone lands in the parking lot,
and somebody runs out there and loads it
up and sends it off to the lab.
It
it might save some time.
I I don't know how big this is
ever gonna get, but, it'd be interesting to
see, next
next,
summer or spring or whenever they do their,
longer range testing.
Maybe I'll I'll try to figure out when
that is and maybe keep an eye on
it.
With that, everybody have a great
Thursday.
And tomorrow, I think I'm gonna I'm gonna
take, tomorrow as a rant today.
I've got a, a small rant. Nothing super
negative, but, hey, we'll see. Catch me tomorrow.