The chance of damaging winds from thunderstorms continues to be increased significantly for late afternoon and this evening.
The Storm Prediction Center’s early afternoon update now puts the southeast third of Lower Michigan in quite a high chance of brief damaging high wind gusts from an expected line of severe thunderstorms.
Just below is the early afternoon update from the Storm Prediction Center (SPC). The magenta colored area from Kalamazoo to Jackson to near Lansing to Ann Arbor and the Detroit area now has at least a 45 percent chance of scattered wind gusts over 60 mph. Notice SPC did not put the black hatched area, meaning they are not expecting high-end 75 mph or faster gusts. These stronger gusts could certainly happen but would be isolated. There has also been an increase in the chance of severe wind gusts in thunderstorms for Grand Rapids, Lansing, Flint and Saginaw.
The tornado chance hasn’t changed much from the morning. There is still the chance of an isolated tornado or two in the severe thunderstorms. In fact a tornado watch is now in effect for the southern row of counties in southwest Lower Michigan.
The latest high-resolution severe weather forecasting model shows the situation clearly.
Severe storms will develop in the very southwest corner of Lower Michigan between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. and then turn into a line of t-storms that could produce widespread damaging winds…