This is our first day of official summer and we will see another hot mainly dry day with temperatures near 90°. There is a slight chance of seeing a popup shower or storm this afternoon mainly between I96 and I94. Yesterday’s high in Otsego was 88.5°.
..Air Quality Alert for Wednesday June 21st... The Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy has declared Wednesday to be an Action Day for elevated levels of ozone. Pollutants are expected to be in the unhealthy for sensitive groups range. The Action Day is in effect for the following Michigan counties... Mason, Oceana, Muskegon, Ottawa, Kent, Allegan and Van Buren. People and businesses are urged to avoid activities which lead to ozone formation. These activities include refueling vehicles or topping off when refueling, using gasoline powered lawn equipment, and using charcoal lighter fluid. Positive activities include car pooling, biking to work, delaying or combining errands, and using water based paints. It is recommended that active children and adults, and persons with respiratory diseases such as asthma, limit prolonged outdoor exertion.
Weather History for SW Michigan
June 18
1976: Three tornadoes cause minor damage across Lower Michigan. The first tornado moved northwest of Lansing, damaging a house and destroying a barn and shed. Another tornado blew down barns near Reese in Saginaw County. The final tornado destroyed a barn and damaged a garage in Gladwin County, north of Edenville.
1994: An early season heat wave peaked with temperatures in the mid and upper 90s across the region. The temperature hit 98 at Lansing, 96 at Grand Rapids, and 91 at Muskegon.
June 19
1954: A tornado strikes in Jackson County at Gillett’s Lake, damaging several houses and cars but causing no injuries.
1995: Muskegon hit 98 degrees, their highest temperature on record in the month of June. Their second-hottest June reading of 95 degrees would occur the following day.
2009: Severe weather strikes with three tornadoes and downburst winds. A tornado partially unroofed a home south of Allegan and another tornado took the roof and deck off a home near Richland in Kalamazoo County. A weaker tornado downed trees and damaged a house in Alamo Township, Kalamazoo County.
June 20
1953: An early summer heat wave peaked with temperatures around 100 degrees. It was the hottest June day on record at Grand Rapids with a high of 102 and a sultry low of 79 degrees.
June 21
1988: The hot summer of 1988 got off to a sizzling start with record highs of 98 degrees at Grand Rapids and Lansing.
1996: A tornado struck from near Weidman to the west of Rosebush in Isabella County. Three homes were damaged, four barns destroyed, and several other outbuildings. Several silos and farm machinery were damaged. Other tornadoes hit near Frankenmuth and Imlay City.
June 22
1957: At least four weak tornadoes hit southern Lower Michigan. At Hudsonville in Ottawa County, the damage is down to a warehouse. A barn is destroyed near Pinconning in Bay County. Several barns are damaged or destroyed in Berrien and Cass Counties. Trees are taken down at Dumont Lake in Allegan County.
1992: One of the coldest summers on record in West Michigan got off to a freezing start with frost and freezing temperatures across the region. At Muskegon, the temperature plummeted to 32 degrees. It was the latest freezing temperature on record there.
2015: Severe thunderstorms with brief tornadoes and downbursts strike across Lower Michigan. Portland, Michigan is hit by a small tornado with winds estimated over 100 mph.
June 23
1960: A tornado struck north of Carson City in Montcalm County, damaging or destroying several farm buildings and four mobile homes.
1870: An extreme heat wave began and lasted through the end of June. Temperatures in the mid and upper 90s prevailed most of that time. Lansing set their all-time high for June of 99 degrees on the 25th.
June 24
1998: A severe thunderstorm produced hail up to 3 inches in diameter and two tornadoes as it tracked across Eaton and Jackson Counties. The first tornado touched down just east of Eaton Rapids and downed trees and power lines. The second tornado hit Layton Corners in north-central Jackson County. This tornado did about half a million dollars in damage as it did minor damage to about a dozen homes.
Weather History for SE Michgan
June 18
On June 18, 2014, As a line of thunderstorms moved through Southeast Michigan, Adrian airport measured a severe thunderstorm wind gust of 81 mph!
Also on June 18, 2010, a severe squall line developed over Northern Illinois and raced across Southern Lower Michigan. The line of severe thunderstorms produced 28 reports of severe winds and wind damage, mostly along and south of Highway M-59. Significant winds in excess of 70 mph were noted from the wind damage in Huntington Woods.
Also on June 18, 1999, Flint had a record cold temperature of 41 degrees, breaking the old record of 43 degrees set back in 1986.
June 19
On June 19, 1948, the daytime temperature in Flint rose to only 59 degrees.
June 20
On June 20, 2021, severe storms, including the first tornado of 2021, occurred during the evening and overnight hours. The bulk of the severe weather occurred over the Metro Detroit region as well as Monroe and Lenawee Counties, and much of the region saw soaking rainfall that provided some relief to the ongoing moderate to severe drought. A brief EF1 tornado occurred near Riga in Lenawee County just before 9:30 pm, damaging 5 homes, 4 outbuildings, 3 barns, and numerous trees. This was the first tornado in Lenawee County since June 2010.
On June 20, 1992, the high temperature for Flint reached a chilly 51 degrees after a cold front had passed the day before. This temperature reading turned out to be the record-low maximum for this date. This record low maximum was one of several that occurred over Southeast Lower Michigan during the “Cold Summer of 1992”.
June 21
On June 21, 2006, severe thunderstorms moved across mainly Lenawee and Monroe Counties. Rainfall in excess of 5 inches created widespread flooding, resulting in three high-water rescues in Lenawee County. The severe thunderstorms produced up to golf ball size hail, estimated wind gusts to 75 mph, and one F1 tornado south of Addison.
On June 21, 1996, severe thunderstorms developed along a warm front across central lower Michigan during the evening on the 21st. The storms moved southeast across the Saginaw Valley and the thumb region during the period from late evening on the 21st through the early morning hours of the 22nd. The result was an extremely damaging weather event, as flash flooding caused millions of dollars of damage to property, and 3 documented tornadoes touched down. The worst damage was done to the resort town of Frankenmuth, where an F3 tornado caused about 5 million dollars of damage. The tornado completely destroyed 4 houses and damaged 130 others. No one was injured or killed. Elsewhere, tornadoes damaged homes in Lapeer and Saint Clair counties, and strong straight-line winds uprooted trees in northern Genesee County and did severe damage to a mobile home dealership in southern Bay County. Flash flooding was widespread throughout the Saginaw Vally and the Thumb region as well. In Bay County, an elderly man was killed when his car was swept from a bridge while he was attempting to cross the Kawkawlin River. Elsewhere, flooding did widespread damage to roads and houses. Dollar damage amounts were difficult to estimate until the growing season actually came to an end, but initial rough estimates placed total damage to crops in the area at several million dollars.
Also on June 21, 1987, an F2 tornado touched down in Novi at the Chateau Estates on 13 Mile Road. The tornado was only on the ground for .3 miles but one death and 6 injuries were reported. 57 mobile homes were destroyed while another 170 mobile homes were damaged.
June 22
On June 22, 2017, severe thunderstorms lifting northward out of Ohio caused wind damage to power lines and trees across far southeast Michigan, including the Detroit Metro area. A line of heavy rainfall then set up over the Saginaw Valley and persisted through the night. A swath of 4 to 7 inches of rain was observed in Midland and Bay Counties, including 7.31 inches in Oil City, a 200-year occurrence for that location.
Also on June 22, 2015, four tornadoes hit Southeast Michigan. An EF0 hit Saint Clair County, separate EF1 tornadoes hit Washtenaw and Sanilac Counties, and an EF2 formed in Saginaw County before crossing into Tuscola. The latter was a low-end EF2 with observed major structural damage to one house and two minor injuries at a campground.
Also on June 22, 2011, storms developed out to the west along a cold front and moved through the area as an organized line of storms during the afternoon hours. There were 31 reports of large hail or damaging winds, including numerous downed trees with winds up to 75 mph in Fort Gratiot, a measured wind gust to 75 mph in Swartz Creek and Flint, and golf ball size hail in St. Clair County. Heavy rain produced flooding in St. Clair County which continued during the overnight hours.
Also on June 22, 1957, an F2 tornado hit Bay County at 7:00 PM.
June 23
On June 23, 2010, two tornadoes hit far Southeast Michigan during the evening hours. The first was a 3.7-mile-long EF0 tornado just southeast of Saline. The other tornado was an EF1 that was on the ground for 11.5 miles across Northern Monroe County, hitting the community of Scofield. The EF1 damage with winds estimated at 90 MPH was found near Tuttle Hill Rd in London Township where a roof was torn off of a pole barn and substantial tree damage was noted.
Also on June 23, 1997, 1.75-inch hail was reported in Laingsburg (Shiawassee County). This was the largest reported hail in our County Warning Area during the year 1997.
June 24
On June 24, 1998, a series of supercell thunderstorms swept through southeastern Michigan, producing hail up to 1.75 inches in diameter and substantial wind gusts. A spotter in Ypsilanti estimated wind gusts of 75mph! One injury was sustained this afternoon due to a fallen tree limb. Damage across southeastern Michigan totaled $82,000.
Grand Rapids Forecast
6 21 grrForecast Discussion
- Continued hot through Thursday The pattern does not change much going into Thursday. The easterly flow will focus the highest daytime temperatures near and west of US 131. Muskegon made it all the way up to 93 on Tuesday. This was well above most of the projected guidance. We therefore bumped up temperatures for this region over the next two days. Highs in the upper 80s to around 90 with a decent amount of sunshine. The Bufkit RH overview from the GFS show little in the way of upper level moisture with mainly diurnally driven scattered to broken cloud cover. The NAM does show an increase in the RH aloft Thursday afternoon in our CWA from the mid to upper level low over the SE U.S. - Small risk for a few showers today PWATs are projected to be similar today compared to what they were yesterday. Slight instability is project near and just under 10K ft. There might be enough there to generate another round of isolated showers. Overall though confidence remains low on their occurrence and if they did form, any qpf would remain very limited. Several high res models do suggest we will see a couple of showers forming in the afternoon. We therefore will maintain them in the forecast. As for Thursday afternoon, we will keep it dry. PWAT values are projected to be lower, at least into the early afternoon hours. There are some indications that moisture may try to increase from the southeast as the wave tries to build closer to the CWA. .LONG TERM...(Thursday night through Tuesday) Issued at 225 AM EDT Wed Jun 21 2023 Not too much has changed with the forecast through the weekend and into next week. The upper low over the Tennessee Valley is progd to drift north by Friday and perhaps help to generate a shower or two over the southeast cwa during the afternoon. As the upper low drifts east, there will be a brief period of ridging over the state Saturday that`ll help to boost temperatures to around 90. Humidity is back in play too as dewpoints climb into the lower 60s. Meanwhile, another upper low will approach the Great Lakes from the west and provide our best chance of precipitation Sunday afternoon through Monday afternoon. We have 40-60 PoPs in the grids, but that doesn`t necessarily correlate to a decent pcpn event. Latest ECMWF ensemble run shows most ensemble members producing pcpn by Monday afternoon. However, QPF is generally less than 0.05; certainly not a drought-buster! A couple of members do show over an inch, but they are the outliers. That said, any rain is beneficial at this point. The upper trough will stick around through Tuesday before moving east and another high to the north moves in generating east flow.
Don’t look twice but the 6 to 10 dayer from the NWS = BLUE rutt roll more cooler weather in view lets do it!! INDY
What? More below normal temps! Wow, just wow!
90 at my house currently. I believe this is the 7th 90 degree day this year at my house.
Back to back 90 degree days? I see GR is at 89 officially…
At the current time I have a temperature of 91 with a DP of 59 so it is a little more humid than it has been.
Slim
As is many times the case with a E or NE wind it is warmer on the west side of the state than the east side. The 2 PM readings Grand Rapids 88, Muskegon and Holland 90, Lansing 87. On the east side of the state Detroit 84, Flint 87 and Saginaw 83. It was hot last year on this first day of “official” summer with H/L’s of 98/68 at Lansing, 95/68 at Grand Rapids, 94/70 at Holland and 90/67 at Muskegon.
Slim
Happy Summer!!! Went to get some strawberries…having a feeling this heat is going to get to them.
Phew upper 80’s by 1pm again today.
Low of 62 this morning in my hood felt good with the windows open and fan going not bad for the end of June standers overnight INDY
Cool nights and lower humidity = no heat wave! Incredible!
Another 90 degree day yesterday!
Hopefully some of those outlier are true and we get over an inch of rain on Sunday/Monday. Otherwise I’m sure we will be entering “severe” drought status.
Also happy first day of summer! It has felt like summer for over a month already. We probably have ~4 months left of the warm season left, so a lot more to go
Happy that we have low dew points, and the evening cools off a bit. As Fonzy would say, “stay cool”.
No doubt and the lower dew points and the cool nights make this so called heat wave a non event!
The summer solstice will be at 10:57 AM. This is the calendar start of summer. And after today the days will now start to become shorter as we head toward winter. The official H/L at Grand Rapids yesterday was 90/59 there was no rain fall and there was 83% of possible sunshine. Since May 9th there has been just 0.24” of rain fall at Grand Rapids. This is probably the driest end of spring start of summer in GR history.
Slim
The average H/L for today is 81/60 the record high of 98 was set in 1988 and the record low of 40 was set in 1939. The record rain fall amount of 3.36” fell in 1914. Today will be another very warm/hot day. There is a chance of some showers today and again on Sunday and Monday. It will be very warm until cooling down on Monday.
Slim
So far June is still below average at Grand Rapids, Holland, Flint, Detroit and Saginaw. It is above average at Muskegon. With a mostly east to northeast wind since May there has been more 90° days on the west side of the state than on the east side. So far Muskegon has had 7 days of 90 or better, Grand Rapids 6 days, Holland 5 days Lansing 4 days. On the east side of the state Saginaw has had 2, Detroit 1 and Flint has 0.
Slim