Introduction

West Michigan Weather Was Founded In 2019 By Jonah & Owen Drake.

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Two brothers who share a passion for the mystery of weather and a wish to make Michigan part of a Weather-Ready Nation!

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From watching storms out the windows of their home to a full-fledged community with more than 20,000 cross-platform followers, this is the home of WMIWX!

Our Story

Inspired by the Discovery Channel series 'Tornado Chasers' and the star Dr. Reed Timmer, Owen and Jonah Drake began to gain interest in severe weather steadily. They had an increasing desire to share that passion with those around them!

In an effort to save lives, preserve property, and increase overall weather awareness, they launched a Discord server in 2019, and the organization quickly grew from there.

Having completed basic weather spotting certification through the National Weather Service and having studied severe weather on a much more in-depth basis in their free time, they decided to begin chasing severe weather near their hometown, north of Grand Rapids, MI, in the summer of 2018 with only their phones, a single vehicle, and a NOAA weather radio.

Now:

West Michigan Weather has become a full-on community comprised of citizens, weather enthusiasts, meteorologists, SKYWARN spotters, and emergency management personnel from around the region, Michiganders, and people from across the country and the world!

Today, we provide live storm chasing and weather updates with a team of 5 chasers, school closing outlooks, generalized weather forecasts, significant weather event review, storm reporting, community education and risk reduction, and more to more than 22,000 square miles of Western Lower Michigan.