WEST MICHIGAN — Thunderstorms have pelted parts of West Michigan with heavy rain, hail and high winds Thursday night. FOX 17 chief meteorologist Kevin Craig says some of the storms were severe. More than 5,300 homes and businesses lost electrical service.
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning was issued by the National Weather Service for Barry County until 10:15 p.m. Thursday.
A number of trees and wires were taken down, as winds gusted to more than 50 miles per hour in northern Kent County, southern Newaygo County and elsewhere. Several trees were down and some property damage reported in the Palo area of Ionia County, in northern Ronald Township. Severe Thunderstorm Warnings were posted in Kent, Ionia, Montcalm, Newaygo, and Muskegon counties.
Hail measuring in size ranges as small as peas and larger than golf balls were reported in some locations.
Photo courtesy: Christine Postmus 8-29-2019
Consumers Energy reported scattered outages on its Outage Map, with power not predicted to be restored until early Friday morning in some locations. North of Rockford, about 1,000 Consumers customers were without power after storms swept through around 7:50 p.m.
The National Weather Service office tweeted that “0.80 inches of rain fell at Gerald R. Ford Airport in Grand Rapids this evening in about 20 minutes.”
You can download the FOX Weather App for updates, or watch FOX 17’s streams on Facebook.
