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26 years ago one of the most destructive, deadly, and costly squall lines of thunderstorms in the world would impact lower Michigan. The most significant impacts of this entire event would occur right here in our backyards during the overnight hours of May 30/31 1998.
Damaging thunderstorm wind gusts of up to 130 MPH (that's the same speed as an EF-2 tornado) would ravage western and central lower Michigan killing 4, injuring more than one hundred, and causing more than 170 million dollars in damage.
Tens of thousands of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed by the intense thunderstorm winds and nearly 1 million people went without power for over a week.
S = Sieche | Red = Measured Winds | Orange = Estimated Winds
Western Lower Michigan saw the worst impacts of the entire derecho. Measured wind speeds from 60 MPH to near 100 MPH were commonplace from Ludington to Detroit.
The National Weather Service in Grand Rapids estimated that wind gusts peaked around 130 MPH from Grand Haven to Grand Rapids based on the damage survey they conducted in the days that followed the storm.
A sieche, or mini tsunami, occurred on Lake Michigan near Muskegon as a result of the winds pushing water towards the eastern shoreline of Lake Michigan with such force.
13 Michigan counties (outlined in blue) were declared a federal disaster area by FEMA.
In West Michigan, 5 of these highly wind-resistant transmission line towers (shown right), designed to withstand continuous winds of 90 MPH and gusts up to 110 MPH, were knocked down from the Lakeshore to Grand Rapids, a true testament to the sheer power of these destructive winds
The derecho would break the state power outage record ever, with 860,000+ people losing power across the state, with the majority located in Western and Central Michigan.
The derecho reached an average forward speed of 70 MPH and moved through the entire state in just 2 hours.
Today, these areas have been rebuilt with very little, if any, indicators of the intense, life-threatening damaging winds that moved through these areas. Today we reflect on this event, and remind ourselves that intense, life-threatening severe weather is, in fact, something we have to contend with here in Michigan. We use this event as a reminder to always be #WeatherAware! If something like this were to occur again, it would be far more impactful, far more dangerous, far more costly, and far more life-threatening than it was nearly 30 years ago.
Make sure that you have a reliable way to get weather forecast information as we head into peak severe weather season here in West Michigan! Links for all of our social media and our YouTube channel are in the menu at the top of the site! Tune in for live storm chasing, weather forecasts, school closing predictions, and more!
Sources:
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/misc/AbtDerechos/casepages/may30-311998page.htm
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