Wild Weather In Southern Michigan.

Holy Crap, we have had an eventfull afternoon. About an hour a go we had two tornado's pass by us, one 5 miles north and one 7 miles south. We have also had hail up to baseball size in places. These storms came out of nowhere as well. We've had the conditions all day but how quickley they came about.

My wife, daughter and I sat out in the yard watching them build around us. I must add that where these tornado's touched down it is very unusual to see them there. Usually they stick to the flatlands to the county south of us. We have more on it's way so It's going to be a long night. If you are in the path of these storms then be carefull.

There is trees, pwer lines, and even buildings down everywhere. My mother had to drive through golf ball sized hail on her way home today as well.

I live (somewhere up -by- Ioway) and in March, -normally- it's still very cold and snowy. In fact, during my half a hundred years alive, actually.

Today it's neared the mid '80's, and when I looked into The Weather Channel's weather.com (www.weather.com) for my own area's 10 day outlook, this July/August-like temperatures are not changing much. I stated recently, I don't believe in Global Warming, and I still don't believe in Global Warming, but (maybe I'm wrong....)

reply to post by usmc0311


I live in MI also.
There were warnings of possible storms with elements conducive to tornado's on the news yesterday.

It isn't really unusual to have tornado weather in the Spring in Michigan in fact it is quite likely for us to
have a tornado season in both the Spring and in the Fall.

reply to post by Saucerwench


Yeah we are still usually getting a little snow this time of year. 3 or 4 years ago we had a foot of snow on the ground at this time.

Our weather has been off all winter here.

Alls quiet and sunny here in South West Michigan but Frankenmuth got hit pretty hard it sounds like. Calledhome and they were under cover

reply to post by usmc0311


It's been pouring hail for about 20 minutes and there's still a tornado warning till 7:28pm.

reply to post by azureskys


I know, these storms are just acting more like april/may storms than mid march storms. I love storms, I just don't like tornados. It looks like there was alot of wind shear that threw trees down everywhere around here. I also have never seen hail like this in march before. Anyway, I hope we get some more thunder and lightening though.

I was watching the weather channel yesterday and they warned of severe weather. It said we had a tornado chance of 3/10, I'm sure Michigan has the same chance since you guys are so close. The guy said the spring like storms are because of El Nina and the Gulf of Mexico didn't cool much fueling the warm moist air.

It stormed here in Ohio in the morning and flooded a large part of the state. It won't be good for them if they get even more rain

Parts of central Ohio were evacuated and a school district closed two schools Thursday due to flooding from storms.

www.weather.com...



Stay safe ATS friends

reply to post by usmc0311


I found a -most- informative site for severe weather fyi, at www.weather.gov

In this link, is their up to the minute page for Michigan. (You'd have to 'refresh' top of screen...)
alerts.weather.gov...

reply to post by usmc0311


The weather up north really has been on the extreme mild side this winter. I've only had to plow my driveway 5 times this year. I think the most 1 day accumulation we had this winter was 6 inches and that melted away after only a few days. I have a weird feeling that this summer is going to bring some unbearable heat. We're already seeing plants growing that usually don't start to sprout until late April or early May!

Wow. Baseball size hail? Thats insane. Be careful up there, everyone. Hail that size can do some serious damage.

We have been having terrible weather down here in south western WV. We have bad flooding, and the thunderstorm that caused it all was very intense. Lots of lightning and a heavy downpour for nearly 2 hours.

You can check out some of my videos of the flooding here if you are interested.

Again, be safe everyone!!

Im watching this storm bear down on me right now (Grosse Ile mi) Ill let you know what happens. News is showing hail shafts up to 40-50,000 feet.

Well, I guess it just made CNN, I will look for their video but, the town next to me has houses and buisnesses completely destroyed. The mill was destroyed as well. My wifes parents live there but are OK. We are going to drive over and see if we can help anyone.

Here is a local news story with photos of the tornados. www.wxyz.com...

tornado sirens going off right now!!

reply to post by usmc0311


I'm in southwest michigan, benton harbor area, near lake michigan, can hear cracklin on the am radio, but no storms here. Where are you all at (don't want to know exactly, just generally).
Going to be listening to the ham, skywarn to be exact, beats the local TV stations, get input from everyone in the county.

Moose

Downriver area here, not much here.

Just started raining here for the most part.

Well we tried to get into Dexter MI but all roads were blocked. We saw authorities from 6 surrounding cities. 75-100 homes are damaged with a few completely destroyed. Here are some videos of the tornado and the damage it caused. My inlaws have debris from a home 1/4 mile away in their yard. They live about 1/4 mile from the subdivision worst hit. We have a friend whose house backs up to that subdivision who is still unaccounted for. We called the sherriffs to see if they would do a drive by but haven't heard anything yet. It's gonna be a long week around here.

I lucked out, thankfully the weather scooted past my area, but as evidenced by the youtube vids others did not fare so well today.

reply to post by usmc0311

Below, Dr. Forbes provides an interesting perspective.
The tornado near Dexter in Washtenaw County is the earliest on record in that county in records starting in 1950.
The preliminary tornado reported near Columbiana in Lapeer County would be the earliest in that county if it’s confirmed.
The preliminary tornadoes near Ida and west of Monroe in Monroe County MI would be the earliest in that county, if confirmed.
There have been earlier tornadoes in south Michigan in general, including an outbreak on March 12, 1976. The earliest tornado in Michigan was on January 18, 1996 in Kalamazoo County.
There was a tornado on Feb 28, 1974 in Wayne County (i.e. near Detroit).
Other earlier days with tornadoes in south MI include Mar 4, 1976; Mar 6, 1956; Mar 7, 1983; Mar 12, 1976. A tornado in Midland County MI on Monday March 12 earlier this week was the earliest for so far north in MI on record.

TWCSource

Images of Storm Damage

thankfully had a window of sunshine over my house all day as the storms rolled around us hadn't even seen a drop of rain until about a half hour ago

haarpstatus.com predicted this 3 days ago...

M6.0 Michigan
Magnitude: M6.0
Wavelength: Short (see about section)
Duration of climb: 2 Hours
Location: Michigan
Date: 3/12/2012 - 16:00UTC
Quality: Excellent

Remarks: A shortwave taking only 2 hours to build has been detected and the system has labeled the star and focus location of Michigan. After an intense ionosphere bake (solar storm) the system is showing values once again as the magnetic pole rotates to Russia and Europe so readings are coming in until tonight when we likely will fade into ionosphere bake when the shift of the magnetic pole comes over Canada and the United States.

Impacts: A moderate shortwave spike such as this indicates a short term severe and tornado event that would come out of nowhere. The focus being 0.0 means it is very close to the location pinpointing on the star location. Residents in Michigan should be on the look-out for these conditions through at least the next 12 hours.