2014 Severe Weather Review

Last year, 2014, serves as a reminder that severe weather comes in multiple forms across Michigan. While the state had a near average number of tornadoes, it was the lightning, severe thunderstorm wind and hail, and flooding  that was responsible for one death, thirteen injuries and the most damaging severe weather season in Michigan’s history.  While tornadoes are nature’s most violent weather, all forms of severe weather can have a huge impact on the State of Michigan. The citizens of Michigan need to be vigilant whenever severe weather is in the forecast, not only for tornadoes, but also for wind, hail, flooding and lightning.

Michigan experienced its most damaging severe weather event in its history in 2014.  On August 11, 4 to 6 inches of rain fell over the most populated areas of Metro Detroit in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties in just a three to four hour period.  The flood affected over 115,000 homes and business, thousands of vehicles and caused $1.8 billion in damages.

According to the NWS, there was one death and nineteen injuries in Michigan from severe weather in 2014.

The death occurred from a lightning strike on June 18 in Pittsfield Township in Washtenaw County.  Among the reports of injuries, 6 injuries occurred from a single lightning strike in the Rifle River State Recreation Area in Ogemaw County on June 28, and another 6 resulted from severe thunderstorm winds on September 5. Five of those injuries occurred as a tent collapsed during a church festival in Dearborn Heights despite a severe thunderstorm watch being issued hours before and a severe thunderstorm warning in effect for over 30 minutes.

Flooding, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes were responsible for over $2 billion in damages, more than a 7 fold increase from the $277 million in damages in 2013. 2014 followed a similar pattern as 2013.  Fewer days of severe weather activity, but when it hit, the severe weather was more significant with higher winds, bigger hail and more damage and impacts for the State of Michigan.

Flooding
There were two significant flood events during 2014, the Metro Detroit floods and the spring snowmelt floods in west central Lower and parts of Upper Michigan in April.

Rainfall amounts across Metro Detroit on August 11 generally ranged from 4 to 6 inches with most of that rain occurring in a 3 to 4 hour time period.  Detroit Wayne County Metropolitan Airport (DTW) recorded 4.57 inches of rain on August 11.  This marked the second wettest day in Detroit’s threaded climate records which date back to 1874 (July 31, 1925 – 4.74 inches).  Many of the creeks, streams and rivers that feed the two main river systems in Metro Detroit, the Clinton and Rouge Rivers also flooded.   The Clinton River near Clinton Township and Ecorse Creek in Dearborn Heights reached record high stages.

The flooding closed many roads and freeways.  Hundreds of vehicles were left stranded on area roads and freeways necessitating the Michigan State Police to use dive teams to ensure no persons were in those stranded vehicles.  A few roads, embankments and bridges were damaged or destroyed by the flooding.  Over 75,000 homes and businesses were damaged by flood waters with another 40,000 affected.   The total damage from the August 11 floods was estimated to be $1.8 billion.  This event qualified for a Presidential Disaster Declaration.

A heavy snowpack from the extreme winter of 2013-2014 started to melt in April 2014.  This melting snow in combination with some heavy rain resulted in nearly $8 million dollars in damage from flooding for portions of west central Lower and Upper Michigan.  The high waters and thawing conditions lead to the Wraco Lodge Dam on Wolf Creek in Roscommon County to give way, and to ice jams along the Tecoosh, Rapid and Escanaba Rivers in Delta County.  In all, over 500 homes and business were affected by the flooding with dozens of road closures.

Tornadoes and Severe Thunderstorms

In 2014, there were 13 tornadoes across the state, which is near the average of 15. There were two days that saw most of the tornado activity, July 6 and September 1.  The first tornado on July 6 was an EF0 that moved from Iron County to Marquette County in Upper Michigan.  There were four additional tornadoes around the midnight hours as July 6 turned to July 7 across southwest Lower Michigan.  The most significant of these was an EF1 tornado in Kentwood that tracked for over 6 miles damaging homes and causing six injuries.  It was a Labor Day to remember across northern Michigan with 4 confirmed tornadoes, including several long path tornadoes.  The largest tornado occurred over eastern Otsego County cutting a path through several neighborhoods.  One person was briefly trapped in their home by falling trees but thankfully there were no injuries or fatalities.  Other damaging EF1 tornadoes happened with isolated severe thunderstorms.  Those included the June 11 St. Charles (Saginaw County), the June 17 Hale (Iosco) and the September 21 Rochester Hills (Oakland) tornadoes.

The first severe weather event hit portions of southern Lower Michigan on April 12.  A warm front that was set up across the state on Saturday served as the focus for multiple storms that traveled east across the middle of Lower Michigan. One storm was able to gather enough strength while moving into a more favorable environment to produce a swath of wind and hail damage from Muskegon to Mt. Clemens. This storm packed high winds up to 75 to 85 mph and quarter-sized hail as it raced east. Damage included uprooted trees, downed power lines, and building damage. April 29th brought a few severe storms to the southern Lower Michigan. Up to golf ball size hail was reported with the storms, along with 50-60 mph wind gusts causing downed trees and power lines. These storms formed in association with a warm front that had set up across the area from the associated large low pressure system in the Midwest.

May and June are usually when severe weather starts to ramp up across Michigan.  During 2014 there were a few days that had severe weather, but nothing that was widespread or significant for a large portion of the state.

The last day of June and into the first day of July, saw a line of severe storms form out over the plains that quickly raced east across Iowa, Southern Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Northern Indiana, and into southern Lower Michigan. Southern Michigan saw damaging winds move through during the evening hours on June 30 and the very early morning hours of July 1st. A wind gust of 74 mph was measured at Brooks field in Calhoun County as well as in Wixom. A storm survey concluded that winds likely reached 80 to 90 mph near to northeast of Albion in Calhoun county.

A powerful upper-level low pressure system dropped southward into the Great Lakes on July 27, sparking several rounds of severe thunderstorms across all of Lower Michigan. Over 120 reports of damaging winds and large hail were reported across Lower Michigan.  Some of the storms were prolific hail producers with hail up to 3″ diameter (greater than baseball size) recorded near Midland, up to 2.50″ diameter (tennis ball size) near the Highland/White Lake area, and up to 2” diameter in Kalamazoo. The most significant wind damage was reported over Metro Detroit. Total damage across  Michigan was estimated to be over 100 million dollars from the severe wind and hail, mostly in southeast Lower Michigan.

Multiple rounds of severe storms rolled across Southern Michigan on September 5, bringing widespread damaging winds. Winds up to 74 mph were reported as the storms raced east ahead of a cold front. The environment was primed for severe weather with temperatures reaching into the upper 80s and lower 90s, along with dewpoints reaching up into the 70s. About 400,000 homes and businesses in Southern Michigan lost power due to the severe thunderstorms and damage reached over $20 million.

The severe weather season ended with a few isolated severe weather events across Southern Michigan on September 20 and one severe hail producing thunderstorm near Menominee on October 28.