While dry weather continues for today and most of tomorrow rain chances are forecast to increase tomorrow night into Friday and once again Sunday into Monday. At this time rain chances for tomorrow night look to be in the 80% range for areas from I96 to the south, while not a soaking rain this does produce some excitement as areas in SW Michigan has seen less than half an inch so far this month. The system for the beginning of next week looks to be even stronger. Keep your fingers cross.
Yesterday we had a high temp of 78° and this morning’s low was 47°.
Weather History for SW Michigan
June 13
1900: A tornado touched down near Marshall and passed north of Battle Creek, ending near Bellevue. Barns were destroyed at several farms along the path of the storm.
1994: A tornado struck Jackson County, producing a 16-mile damage path and injuring 2 people. More than a dozen homes were damaged or destroyed, along with other buildings.
2004: Severe weather struck across the region and a weak tornado touched down briefly in a field one mile northeast of Stanton in Montcalm County.
June 14
1894: A week-long heatwave was underway with temperatures at or above 90 degrees across much of the region from June 10th to June 16th. Grand Rapids hit 95 degrees on the 13th, 96 degrees on the 14th and 97 degrees on the 15th.
1991: A tornado injures one person and damages several homes east of Jackson.
June 15
1960: More than 20 houses sustain damage as a tornado hits the southern part of the city of Jackson, Michigan.
1976: Tornadoes caused a quarter-million dollars damage in Lower Michigan. In Kent County, a barn is destroyed and two houses damaged by a tornado near Cedar Springs. In Allegan and Ottawa Counties, several buildings are damaged along a twelve-mile path, ending just south of Jenison. Mobile homes are damaged near Walton in Wexford County.
1982: A series of strong tornadoes struck central Lower Michigan. In Gratiot County, several homes were damaged, two of them severely as a tornado moved from near Pompeii to North Star. In Jackson County, a tornado kills one person and injures another as it moves about 5 miles west of Munith.
June 16
1974: Cool and cloudy weather prevailed for the middle of June with high temperatures only in the middle 50s across the region on both June 16th and 17th.
June 17
1975: A tornado struck two miles northeast of Newaygo. A tree fell on and killed a 14-year-old girl who was camping with her parents. Tornadoes also hit Roscommon County, where damage was done to some boats on the southwest shore of Houghton Lake. Another tornado damaged several farm buildings north of Zeeland in Ottawa County.
1992: Over a dozen, mostly weak tornadoes struck across Lower Michigan, including south of Coopersville in Ottawa County, near Cedar Springs in Kent County, Harrison in Clare County and Pewamo in Ionia County.
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 did minor damage to a house in Alamo Township, Kalamazoo County. This is one I watched intensify just south of Otsego.
Weather History for SE Michigan
June 13
On June 13, 2004, an F1 tornado hit Huron County at 5:00 PM, causing $25,000 in damage. One property in this county lost 44 trees because of this tornado; many of the trees were very large and older than 100 years!
June 14
On June 14, 1966, an F2 tornado hit Wayne County and caused $3,000 in damage.
June 15
On June 15, 1982, an F3 tornado struck Washtenaw County. The tornado moved from 5 miles west-southwest of Munith in Jackson County to 8 miles northwest of Chelsea. The tornado was 1500 feet wide, and it resulted in one death and one injury in Jackson County. Overall, 7 houses were destroyed and 15 buildings were damaged by the tornado.
June 16
On June 16, 1998, lightning struck and killed a person at 6 PM in Wayne County.
June 17
On June 17, 2009, three to six inches of rain fell in and around the I 69 corridor during the daytime hours including 3.46 inches at Flint. That made it the 2nd wettest June day and 9th wettest day all-time for Flint. This amount of rain, coupled with the wet spring, lead to flooding across a few counties. Road closures and basement flooding were common.
On June 17, 1992, 10 tornadoes touched down in Southeast Lower Michigan as a squall line ripped across the region. All of the tornadoes were rated F0 and F1. Temperatures ahead of the squall line soared into the 90s which was one of only three such days during the cold summer of 1992.
Also on this date in 1935, the record for the greatest amount of precipitation for the month of June in Saginaw was reached, with a rainfall estimate of 2.98 inches.
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!
Forecast Discussion
-- Dry air today into Thursday -- Temperatures will again be pleasant and around normal for the time of year today. Dew points will likely drop into the 30s and relative humidity in the 20s this afternoon. Fortunately for fire weather concerns, winds will be rather light. On the back side of the surface high on Thursday, low-level flow will switch more southwest, transporting warmer and slightly more moist air. Given the higher temperatures on Thursday, relative humidity is still expected to drop below 30 percent in most locations. Winds will tend to increase a bit Thursday afternoon, particularly in west- central to central Lower Michigan, getting close to gusting to 20 mph at 10 meters. -- Thunderstorm chances Thursday night into Friday -- Strengthening mid and upper level flow and mid-level moisture advection Thursday night may promote thunderstorm development. While not all models show this, there is a reasonable probability of an MCS in Iowa propagating more toward the southeast in northern Illinois, taking advantage of the greater instability, mid-level warm front and low-level jet nose. However there is some signal for scattered storms to develop farther north in central or northern Lower Michigan where elevated moist parcels are less inhibited and may be aided by lift from small-scale convergence on the nose of spurious low-level jetlets. Confidence in significant weather impacts is fairly low. Shear and instability parameters are eye catching Friday afternoon, however, some limiting factors include WSW surface winds and divergence likely at 850 mb, while a tendency for subsidence strengthens a cap over the diurnal boundary layer. The ECMWF also shows the better upper level jet dynamics and 500 mb vorticity advection focused north and east of the area Friday evening. While storms can`t be ruled out with the cold front Friday evening, confidence in significant weather impacts is again fairly low at this time. -- Thunderstorm chance Sunday night -- We will have to watch the evolution of the upper level trough and developing surface low to our northwest on Sunday through Monday. There are some solutions to the global models which would result in convection in the vicinity of a warm front lifting north through the area Sunday evening, and/or with the cold front Monday. If convection were to occur, vertical wind shear would be adequate for more impactful thunderstorms.
It was a beautiful day outside today! Not to hot and a nice breeze. We had dinner outside today. Grilled some hotdogs.
Upper 40″s low 50’s overnight in west Michigan for mid June or should I say Septemberish feel how sweet is that back to perfect fire Weather if you ask me!! Keep the heat and humidity away …INDY
Records being smashed all over the west. I think I heard this correctly: Salt Lake City set their all time high record yesterday at 107. BTW, it’s only mid-June.
Hoping for rain….
That 107 set a new all time record high for June there and it tied the all time record set on July 26, 1960 and again on July 13, 2002. The mean average of 100° days at Salt Lake City is 4 the record is 21 set in 1994 the number has been going up over the last 20 years and last year they had 14. BTW Salt Lake City is not that much further south than GR is 40°45′39″N 111°53′28″W.
Slim