Last Nights Storms
It was another wild night in Michigan, with several tornadoes reported. NWS crews will be out for confirmations today. In Otsego, we had some wind, intense lightning, and rain. There was a possible tornado just north of Martin. A debris signature confirmed another tornado on the ground near the Caledonia area. There are 3661 power outages in the state, according to Consumers Power as of 6 am. More information will become available as we go through the day.
Weather History
1997: Record low temperatures are set at Grand Rapids and Muskegon, with both falling to 29 degrees. This will go in the record books as the coldest May on record at Grand Rapids.
On May 16th, 1974, an F1 tornado hit Sanilac County at 11:30 PM.
Three years later on May 16th, 1977 in Detroit, the temperature rose 49 degrees from a morning low 40 to an afternoon high of 89.
Forecast Discussion
Yesterday we reached a high of 87° and we had around .60 of an inch of rain. We will see the sun return today for a while before more rain moves in tonight. Temperatures will be in the low 80s.
Severe storms have moved east and there will be a temporary lull in the weather until a second batch of storms arrives Friday evening, associated with a cold front trailing from the sfc cyclone tracking across the Michigan UP. Downburst winds will the main threat, generally between 8 pm and 11 pm, with instability waning during the evening but impressive deep layer shear greater than 50 knots resulting in organized convection, mostly in the form of bowing line segments, but enough directional shear to allow for some rotating updrafts as well. Cooler, showery weather moves in behind the front for Saturday and Sunday then a Canadian surface high builds in with fair weather into at least early next week. Good radiational cooling conditions Sunday and Monday nights could bring scattered frost with lows in the 30s across the northern zones. Rain chances return by mid-week although some model guidance suggest most of the precip remains south of Lower Michigan.
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Finally…three misses to the north for Ada today. Now, Thunderstorm overhead. Gusty winds, lightning/thunder, wind blown rain. Sure sounds good…sub severe.
https://michigan-weather-center.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/meso-5-26.png
Thunderstorm activity is ongoing across portions of far
southeastern WI/northeastern IL and into portions of lower Michigan.
Within this region, a plume of steep low to mid-level lapse rates is
in place amid MLCAPE around 500 J/kg. Deep layer shear is strongest
across the southern Michigan peninsula, where 0-6 km shear around
40-50kts is in place. This environment will support a few instances
of severe hail and wind. It is unlikely a watch will be needed at
this time due to generally weak instability and loss of daytime
heating.
https://www.weather.gov//images/grr/wxstory/Tab4FileL.png
Another round of thunderstorms is expected this evening between 8 pm and 3 AM Saturday. The primary threat is damaging winds but large hail is possible and can’t rule out a weak tornado. Damage is not expected to be as widespread nor as strong as last night’s storms.
Crazy night! I seen some things I don’t believe I’ve ever seen before with a storm. Good call with the tornado warning by us. We had about a 8 to 10 minute lead time before the cell went right over our house. We were watching from the garage then ran for the basement when things got weird.
Anyone know of a site that you can see the radar loop from last night? That rouge cell that came straight from the South collided with the main line of storms right over top of us. Just nuts.
I was wondering how long it takes for them decide if a tornado hit? I know years ago neighbor had twisted tree damage and corn sucked off the stalks and they said it was straight lines winds. These storms parents had health trees uprooted and knocked down, but not too far from where they predict a tornado went through. It will be interesting.
We spent about an hour in basement last night too.
Before today’s warmth, GR is now +2.2 degrees above average for May.
I took incredible lightning pictures last night. Best whole sky streaks I’ve seen in a long time in Michigan.
I’ve had now 3 tornado warnings at my house in less than a year. Crazy. Seems more tornado active lately
One of my family members work sustained damage in the SW side of Lansing. Likely from a tornado I’m sure.
Wow that was quite the storm, definitely going to be a memorable one for years to come. The NWS surveys will be interesting (I assume they have the funding to do a proper survey but we will see)
The Board of Water and Light estimates our restoration to be Wednesday. Hoping that’s a VERY conservative estimate. It was absolutely crazy here.
Here in MBY last night’s storm had a lot of lightning I would say it was the most lightning I have seen in several years. Most of the lightning was cloud to cloud and there was not as much thunder as one would expect for all of the lighting. There was also a lot of rain here in my yard I record 1.07” of rainfall. As for wind there was really not much and my guest is around 25MPH I did not see any hail. The latest on the power outages is around 186,134 locations are without power.
https://www.consumersenergy.com/outagemap
The official H/L at Grand Rapids yesterday was 85/59 there was 0.41” of rain at the airport the highest wind gust was 61 MPH out of the W For today the average H/L is 70/49 the record high of 89 was in 1962 and 1977 the coldest high of 45 was in 1940 the record low of 29 was in 1977 the warmest low of 65 was in 1962 and 1911 the most rainfall of 1.97” was in 1974.
Slim