Category: Severe Storms

Heavy Rain over Lower Michigan Thursday then Very Windy, with Showers Friday.

South of Michigan there is an enhanced risk for severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes over Ohio, western Pennsylvanian, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Storm Summary for the 27th into the 28th of February, 2024

Record high temperatures ( many cases all time record highs for February) were quickly brought to an end by a strong late February cold front. There were 21 reported tornadoes, mostly EF-0 and EF-1 but there was an EF-2 near Grand Blanc in Geneses County just ahead of the cold front. Temperatures fell around 50 degrees between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday afternoon over Lower Michigan. There was 6 to 10 inches of snow in upper Michigan and locally 1 to 2 inches of rain in parts of southern Lower Michigan. Winds gusted to 69 mph over western Lake Erie.

A Look at the January 9-10th Storm and some impacts

This storm brought heavy snow to the Midwest and parts of the Great Lakes, then there were damaging winds over the eastern Seaboard, as well as flooding. Severe storms and over a dozen tornadoes occurred over the Southeast sections.

Looks like a rainy night tonight and during the day tomorrow over the eastern CONUS. There is an enhanced risk of severe storms over Louisiana this evening.

This blog is really more about showing those who do not know about the SPC HREF model. I have some of the key charts from today’s HREF that show where the severe storms are expected, the strongest winds, and heaviest rainfall.

Here is a link to the SPC HREF model.

Here is an updated report on the storms on August 24, 2023. As it turned out there were 1 EF-1 tornado in Southwest Michigan, and EF-2 tornado in South Central Michigan and 6 tornadoes, 1 EF-0 and 5 EF-1’s in the Detriot area. I updated some of my slides for the event.

I updated my story about the severe storms since the NWS has now reported 8 tornadoes in Michigan on the 24th of August. The strongest was an EF-2 near Webbrvillle

Heavy Rain and Risk for Severe Storms Today

The Storm Prediction Center has put most of the southern 1/3 of Lower Michigan an enhanced risk for severe storms today (mostly late morning into mid afternoon). Locally heavy rainfall is expected too.

Most of the rainfall today will be from late morning into mid afternoon.

My experience in forecasting over the past 46 years tell me that for Southwest Michigan convection during the spring and summer months, warm fronts, stationary fronts and surface waves bring this area the most rainfall. Cold fronts bring us the least (typically). This event is warm front with a surface wave that develops into a surface low. This tells me most area should see meaningful rainfall today.

I have updated my storm review of the 12th of July to include the information released by North Webster Indian (IWX) on the Colon EF-1 Tornado.

I added the Colon EF-1 Tornado to the storm summary plus the CoCoRaHS rainfall reports for the storm.