Empire, Michigan Weather
Empire, Michigan — live current conditions, hourly and 7-day forecasts, NWS alerts, radar and satellite imagery, soil and crop conditions for Empire, Leelanau County.
Full aviation weather for Empire is published on the William B Bolton Airport (KY87) page, 5 km away. It carries the current METAR decoded into plain language — surface wind, visibility, cloud layers and ceiling, temperature and dewpoint, and altimeter setting — alongside the raw observation as transmitted. 4 airfields within reach of Empire have their own pages, listed below.
The Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) is shown across its full validity period, with each change group broken out so you can see when conditions are expected to shift. Flight category is derived automatically — VFR, MVFR, IFR or LIFR — from reported ceiling and visibility, with runway details and field elevation alongside. Observations update roughly hourly and forecasts several times a day.
Other airports near Empire: Frankfort Dow Memorial Field (KFKS) 24 km · Green Lake Airport (KY88) 33 km · Cherry Capital Airport (KTVC) 38 km
Conditions reported at KY87 describe the airfield itself. Weather 5 km away can differ, particularly in terrain or near the coast. For conditions at Empire specifically, see the current conditions and forecast above.
Soil conditions, frost risk and crop weather for Empire.
About Empire, Michigan
Empire, a village painted onto the western edge of Leelanau County, unfolds with a quiet grace against the vast expanse of Lake Michigan. It lies 52.5 miles east-south-east of Door, WI (from Door, WI: bearing 113°T), and is situated 16.8 miles west-north-west of Long Lake Township. The land here rolls, a gentle descent of sandy bluffs and low-slung dunes that give way to the cool, clear water, a constant presence that shapes the very air. Pine trees, stoic and wind-worn, cling to the higher ground, their needles whispering secrets to the persistent breeze that carries the scent of freshwater and damp earth. The sky above Empire often hangs in a luminous haze, particularly at dusk, when the sun bleeds orange and violet into the lake, casting long, dancing shadows across the shoreline and infusing the world with a painterly, ephemeral beauty. The village itself is a collection of weathered clapboard buildings, their paint faded by sun and season, hinting at a history lived out under this wide Michigan sky. The roots of Empire run deep, intertwined with the timber industry that once defined its early days, the ghosts of sawmills and logging camps still lingering in the surrounding woods. Later, the fertile soil gave rise to vineyards, their orderly rows climbing the slopes, a testament to the enduring agricultural spirit of the region. Today, Empire thrives on a blend of tourism and the quiet persistence of its year-round residents, drawn to the unhurried pace and the raw, untamed beauty of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, which embraces the village. The Platte River, a ribbon of cool water, meanders through the landscape, offering its own quiet invitation to kayakers and anglers, a reminder of the natural abundance that continues to sustain this place, a place that feels both timeless and perpetually renewed.
Live animated radar for Empire and surroundings — RainViewer.
NOAA GOES-16 GEOCOLOR — live animated loop updated every 10 minutes. Shows cloud cover, storm systems and weather patterns across the continental US.
Source: NOAA/NESDIS GOES-East · Public domain · Auto-updates on page reload
| Location | Empire, Leelanau County, Michigan |
| Coordinates | 44.811108°N, 86.060093°W |
| Timezone | Eastern Time (America/Detroit) |
| ZIP Code(s) | 49630 |
| Area Code | 989 |
| Page generated | September 2026 |
| Weather data | Open-Meteo (open-source), NOAA National Weather Service |
About This Empire, Michigan Weather Page
This page provides live weather conditions and forecasts for Empire, Michigan, including current conditions, a 24-hour hourly forecast, 7-day outlook, NWS extended text forecast, precipitation radar and NOAA GOES-16 satellite imagery. Aviation weather — live METAR observations and TAF forecasts — is published separately on the pages for the nearest reporting airports, linked from the aviation section above. Additional sections may include tide predictions, wave height, wave direction and sea-surface temperature, a barometric pressure trend, and a solunar-based fishing forecast with a fishing-conditions rating for coastal localities, and soil temperature, crop weather and live USGS river gauge data for agricultural areas near a monitored waterway. All data updates automatically on every page visit.
Location data for Empire includes coordinates 44.811108°N, 86.060093°W, situated in Leelanau County. ZIP code 49630. Telephone area code: 989. Timezone: Eastern Time (America/Detroit).
Weather data is sourced from the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS) and the open-source Open-Meteo API. River and stream data is sourced from the USGS National Water Information System. Tide predictions are sourced from NOAA CO-OPS; marine and solunar data are modeled from Open-Meteo and public sunrise/moon calculations and should be treated as a general guide alongside on-the-water conditions. Radar is provided by RainViewer. Satellite imagery is sourced from NOAA/NESDIS GOES-East and is public domain.
