Weather reporting

[MasterB]

Put on a light show and thunder as well and some hail as well I was seeing where the tornado was headed was southeast of where I lived went over Portage & Schoolcraft and BC way. Just glad I didn't lose power. Was a good 2 hours 10PM to 12AM with the thunderstorms.

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Tornado warning in Southern Ingham and a northern Jackson counties… Leslie and Stockbridge area. This particular storm has a well pronounced comma shaped hook on the end of it.

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Now a tornado warning in Gennessee County this one over Grand Blanc.

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Make that a confirmed damaging tornado over Grand Blanc.

[OnTopic]

Saw NBC, ABC, and CBS break in for overnight coverage. Did not see anything from FOX unless I missed it flipping between the other 3.

[MWmetalhead]

Golfball to baseball sized hail fell in the Battle Creek area.

Much smaller hail elsewhere - 1" diameter or less.

I did not see any official reports of thunderstorm winds in MI reaching severe criteria.

I will say the Grand Blanc tornado surprised me somewhat. I think two clusters of storms may have collided over that area, similar to what happened in Kent County last August. I wasn't awake at the time the touchdown occurred. I do recall seeing broad rotation on radar near the Genesee / Shiawassee border around midnight, more indicative of a straight line wind risk in that area.

I am unsure how much advance warning was provided. Anyone know?

I was a bit surprised Genesee, Lapeer, and the Metro Detroit counties were never added to the severe thunderstorm watch. The decision to add or remove local counties after a watch is initially issued is largely made by the local weather service office as opposed to the SPC.

[Michiganviewer]

Another dud for a weather forecast from our area news weather department.

No tornado, no golfball hail size in wayne county

[MWmetalhead]

They never said it was a sure bet or that everyone would see such conditions.

All forecasts I saw said a tornado somewhere in SE Michigan could not be ruled out or that there was a risk of an "isolated" tornado.

All-in-all, I thought the TV people did a decent job forecasting yesterday's system given its highly unusual nature.

My biggest beef is WDIV undershooting yesterday's high temp. Kim Adams the previous evening was calling for a high temp of only 63 degrees. She missed the mark by 10 full degrees.

Great depiction right now on hi-res radar of where the cold front resides. It is sweeping through Oakland County as I speak. It will likely take another hour to 90 minutes for the cold air to become truly noticeable. It is only 40 in Lansing right now. Gusts to 50 mph are possible with frontal passage.

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Golfball to baseball sized hail fell in the Battle Creek area.

Much smaller hail elsewhere - 1" diameter or less.

I did not see any official reports of thunderstorm winds in MI reaching severe criteria.

I will say the Grand Blanc tornado surprised me somewhat. I think two clusters of storms may have collided over that area, similar to what happened in Kent County last August. I wasn't awake at the time the touchdown occurred. I do recall seeing broad rotation on radar near the Genesee / Shiawassee border around midnight, more indicative of a straight line wind risk in that area.

I am unsure how much advance warning was provided. Anyone know?

I was a bit surprised Genesee, Lapeer, and the Metro Detroit counties were never added to the severe thunderstorm watch. The decision to add or remove local counties after a watch is initially issued is largely made by the local weather service office as opposed to the SPC.

The time stamps for my two posts are within a minute of the warning issuance and update. There was no severe thunderstorm warning until later. I was watching the radar and all of a sudden the red box appeared and then about 5 minutes late it changed from capable of producing a tornado to radar confirmed tornado so I’m gonna say not a whole heck of a lot. It sure looks like a pretty sudden spin up to me.

[MWmetalhead]

I suspected it might've been sudden.

If there was any lead time on the tornado warning (if even minutes), then the NWS did a good job.

Public safety officials in Calhoun and Genesee Counties did a great job in obtaining confirmations on these late night tornadoes. Illumination offered by frequent lightning likely helped the cause.

[MichMash]

I was watching Weather Channel at home when the Calhoun County tornado warning was issued. TWC's Carl Parker put up the local radar and pointed out the echo that caused the warning to be issued, then a short while later, after the storm had tracked east and was just northeast of Marshall, he pointed out another echo that indicated debris aloft from that storm. Parker even commented that he hoped no one was in that storm path. WOOD-TV8 is reporting significant tree and property damage there.

I also found an article buried on WOOD-TV8's website by Ellen Bacca where she answered a viewer question about whether there had ever been any February tornadoes on record in Michigan. The answer: five -- an EF-2 in Wayne County back in 1974, and a series of four EF-1's that all occurred on the night of Feb. 28-March 1, 2017 in the area of Niles/Dowagiac. So last night's events are indeed quite rare.

https://www.woodtv.com/weather/ask-elle ... -february/

[MWmetalhead]

It reached 70 in Alpena yesterday. The current wind chill there is 1 degree above zero! Air temp is 19.

Grand Rapids was 73. They are currently 22 with a wind chill of 5 above.

This is the craziest temperature change in Michigan I've ever seen.

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Last nights Grand Blanc tornado has been confirmed as an EF2.

[MWmetalhead]

Damn. That's pretty strong by Michigan standards!

Here is the report:
https://kamala.cod.edu/mi/latest.nous43.KDTX.html

115 mph max wind speed. Just barely an EF-2.

Most of the homes in the direct path withstood the winds pretty well, it appears.

[Michiganviewer]

The wdiv forecast models throughout tri country metro areas did have high winds projected with that the temp does decrease real feel. That was a real good job by wdiv showing correctly temps.