Every square mile of the WOOD viewing area had a thunderstorm on Wednesday. There was spotty severe weather. This is the Severe T-Storm Watch that was issued by the Storm Prediction Center tht ran from late afternoon to 11 pm:

Severe T-Storm Watch until 11 pm for much of S. Lower Michigan

The first area of storms produced storms produced some strong winds, hail and heavy rain. 7/8″ diameter along with 50-60 mph wind gusts were reported at the Channel in Whitehall. 7/8″ hail also fell near Mears in Oceana Co. Shelby, New Era and Reeman all reported over an inch of rain in less than an hour. Shelby and New Era had over 1 3/4″ of rain. Water was reported over US 31 near Manistee.

Storms produced a swath of occasional wind damage from SW Newaygo County through Northern Montcalm County. M-37 was closed for a little while near Newaygo when a tree fell across the road. Significant power outages occurred east of Newaygo and in the Howard City Area. Hail to the size of ping-pong balls fell near Vestaburg.

Hail in Vestaburg – up to the size of ping-pong balls

A swath of wind damage began northwest of Allendale thru Walker and into Grand Rapids. There were a few large trees uprooted in Walker. Four structures were damaged just north of I-196 in downtown Grand Rapids. Trees were also uprooted here and a power pole was snapped. A fire was extinguished neat the Basilica of St. Adalbert’s on the NW side of the city. There were also trees down in Forest Hills, Ada and Lowell.

Peak Wind Gusts from Wednesday

Wind gusts hit 62 mph at Big Sable Point near Ludington, 51 mph at the Ford Airport, 53 mph in East Gr. Rapids and 42 mph in Holland. Several houses were damaged near Sunfield. A maximum of 52,000 customers lost power, with over 20,000 in Kent County.

This is hail in Crystal in Montcalm Co.
Rainfall on Wednesday

Here’s some rainfall totals from Wednesday. Much of the area had a pretty good soaking.

High and Low Temperatures Wednesday

Here’s high and low temps. on Wednesday…another hot one…but again look how much cooler it was at Lake Michigan.

This same system produced an EF2 tornado in Sioux Falls SD yesterday evening and there was some significant damage up near Chippewa Lake in Mecosta Co. on Monday.

Rainfall Tuesday

Here’s some rainfall totals from Tuesday. Scattered showers and storms were around early in the day and then around the dinner hour. Norton Shores had the rain magnet working with over 2″. Over an inch and a half fell at the Muskegon airport. There were about 1,000 customers that lost power during the evening storms in Ottawa and Kent Counties. Small hail fell in Grand Haven and Coopersville, while hail nearly to golfball-size fell at Mt. Pleasant.

High temperatures Tuesday

Here’s high and low temperatures for Tuesday. Kalamazoo reached 90° at the airport. That’s the 11th 90-degree day for Kalamazoo this summer. All of the other 10 days were in July. Note the much cooler temperatures at Lake Michigan. The weather station at the beach in Muskegon was 20° cooler than Kalamazoo. The water temp. Tuesday AM was 65° at Holland State Park. The water temp. at Reeds Lake Tuesday was 71°

Sunset at South Haven Tuesday evening

This was sunset at the South Haven Channel Tuesday evening. We are losing nearly 3 minutes of daylight each day now as we move through September. Sunrise today (Wed.) in downtown Gr. Rapids is at 7:18 am and sunset is at 8 pm exactly.

The temperature reached 100° at Lexington KY on Tuesday, Louisville was 99°. Atlanta and Montgomery AL topped out at 98° and Tampa had a high of 96°. On the cool side, the high temp. was just 55° at Grand Marais MN, 60° at Intl. Falls MN, 61° at Devils Lake ND, just 54° at Cut Bank MT. and 52° at Yellowstone N.P.

Have a great day! Thanks for reading my blog and you can look for me on the news later today.