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Ludington Officials Disrupt Halloween Night, Moves it Forward to Worse Night

Earlier this afternoon, the Chief of Police of the Ludington Police Department, Mark Barnett made a pronouncement that due to bad weather forecasted over a day away on Halloween night, the City of Ludington would hold door-to-door trick or treating on Friday instead of Thursday, otherwise known as Halloween night. I really couldn't believe it when I heard the news, figuring it was someone playing a joke on me, but it turned out to be true.

Apparently, there is an almost certain chance of rain and strong winds predicted and so the order is to keep the ghosts and goblins and their overseers in from the elements that day. So I looked at the forecast for Thursday night on Weather Underground:

Comments from some of the media have said that the wind is supposed to be as high as 30 mph and the chance of precipitation is 100%. As you can see the two stats are lower, with wind at 14 mph and chance of rain 90%, and at a very nice Halloween temperature of 55 degrees. That's not optimum condition for those who want to take their kids trick or treating, but it isn't all that bad really. In fact, when we take a look at the Friday forecast, we see that it may need further moving if we use the chief's rationale:

We see the wind whipping in at the same speed earlier on that night (14 mph), the chance of rain is 30%, with likely a bit of rain falling through the day. The City of Ludington, small in area, could easily get as much rain as it does on Thursday, possibly more. But Friday becomes even worse when you factor in the temperature, which is about ten degrees lower than it is on Thursday. At 55 degrees, a little wind is more annoying than biting, but when you get down to 45 degrees with 15 mph winds you have it feeling like it's 29 degrees out, as this chart illustrates:

So exposed flesh will not only be moist due to high humidity or rain, but the wind will make the temperature below freezing to your exposed skin-- on Friday. Thursday's forecast will feel over twenty degrees warmer. So if you're actually looking out for the safety of kids so as to avoid getting sick with bronchitis or pneumonia you may want to choose Halloween on Thursday instead of Friday. Oops, the calendar just happened to do that as well, Chief Barnett. Fortunately, our pals from Scottville and other neighboring areas have the common sense to keep Halloween on Halloween.

On WZZM, they remarked that Ludington did this and asked their Facebook audience whether this was smart or silly on Ludington's part. The majority of respondents seemed to think it was silly.

Typical responses:

"I grew up in Ludington 30 yrs ago when it snowed half the time never did they move it that's silly and they wonder why the kids today are so whimpy."

"I remember trick or treating in the rain and the snow.... They didn't change when we were kids... We live in Michigan bundle up and face the weather. It's not the kids that don't want to go it's the parents."

"Stupid, how about moving Christmas because it's too snowy."

"Rain and cold weather doesn't get you sick! Germs do! People need to toughen up! I have a 5,4,2,1 and 4 month old and we will be trick or treating!"

"We're from the area, and a lot of us are thinking silly. Thank You Scottville (neighboring city) to keep trick or treating on Halloween!"

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