WEST MICHIGAN (May 11, 2014) — What a fabulous Mother’s Day across West Michigan! While we saw high clouds increase in the late afternoon, the day remained dry for everyone to get out and enjoy. That said, we are anticipating the weather to become a bit more unsettled by mid/late evening, overnight, and on Monday.
A warm front (the leading edge of warm/moist air) will approach southern lower Michigan overnight. That will spark several rounds of showers and thunderstorms that will likely travel along the front. Large hail, damaging winds, and heavy rain will be possible with these storms. In fact, an isolated tornado cannot be ruled out.
Take a look (below) at the Storm Prediction Center severe weather outlook for overnight. We’re in a slight risk. (the hatched in area in yellow)
Here’s the SPC outlook for Monday (below). Again, a slight risk of severe weather is possible with hail and wind as the primary threats.
The other issue is the possibility of heavy rainfall over the next two days. Until the system passes through the state on Tuesday with the cold front, we have the potential at seeing a solid one to two inches of rain in some areas from these storms. That may prompt flood advisories and increased river levels in some locations, so make sure to stay up on later forecasts.
By Wednesday, another low pressure area riding along the cold front may deliver more rain showers late in the day, especially south/east of Grand Rapids. If that wasn’t enough, an upper level trough will set up shop over the region and bring the chance for a few more showers on Thursday and Friday. If nothing else, we’ll see much cooler temperatures by mid-week with the trough (upper 50s/near 60) and some morning lows likely falling in to the 30s.
The thumbnail attached to this story is a snapshot from our computer forecast model valid on Monday morning at 6:00 AM showing scattered showers and thunderstorms about the area.
Get the complete West Michigan forecast at www.fox17online.com/weather.
