Flood Watch this Weekend
March 5th, 2009 at 7:49 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, Weather
<–click to enlarge. We have a Flood Watch for much of Southern Lower Michigan and a Flood Warning for the White and Chippewa Rivers. Here’s GRR radar, Storm Total Rainfall (already 1/2″ in GRR and Holland), Great Lakes Radar, Lightning Map (30 minute delay), Michigan surface observations. Look at how warm it is south of the front! Michigan has been kind of a precipitation magnet over the last year and we have another significant event coming up this weekend. This one will be rain (too bad for the snow lovers…who have missed some dandy snowstorms because it’s been too warm) and lots of it (1-2″ in the heaviest band?) with perhaps a flash or two of lightning thrown in. HPC has an area of snow across Upper Michigan, where 6″+ could fall. While we’re going to go a week without significant precipitation since the rain on Feb. 26…the ground is still pretty soggy and we can expect a significant runoff that will once again bring creeks and smaller rivers up to bankfull. The latest lake level bulletin has Lake Michigan up 2″ in the last month and up 11″ in the last year (that’s a HUGE increase in just a year). We’re still 11″ below the March average, but we’ve done some catching up this past year.
I wouldnt mind a little rain. Or a lot.
Today was nice but man that wind was wicked. My kids tried to play outside and literally got blown over. They also got covered in mud. The made snowballs. From mud.
I am pleased to see the water levels rising at a good clip. DO you think we will hit the average level?
Please pray for no rain.
My and others electric cost to keep water pumped away from and coming into the finished basement is $400 a month already which is 4x the normal electrical cost. 13 years and never a concern now every day is a battle. Loose electricity and back up pump takes on the work of two other pumps until the generator gets on it and still can’t stop the water pressure from cracking the basement floor. I’m not sure of the struggles in other areas of west Michigan but the north side of Holland is a nightmare and no one has any answers except pray for no wetness of any type.
The problems here are a news story that has not been covered.
Harvey…We need the rain/synoptic snow to help raise the lake levels and water our outdoor plants.
Bill…How far north would you move the slight risk line? Would Muskegon Co. be engulfed in the slight risk, do you think?
Its still a warm March night here with a temp of 57°. Well the rain will help “green” up some of that brown grass thats out there. We realy do not need a whole lot of rain though but we have no control as to how much we get so we have to live with it.
SlimJim
BTW the map is for heavy rain not severe storms..sort of a flood chance if you will.
SlimJim
We need rain, but not a lot. Bill will this effect our flight out of South Bend Sunday morning?
Thanks Bill!
Bill…My high temp. today was 56.3 degrees and my current temp. is 49.6 degrees!
Mine shows a high of 62.1° for yesterday and current is still at 53.8°. Great for this time of year. Cheap thermometer, but its not far off give or take. Hope today will be the same.
LIGHTNING ON LAKE SUPERIOR!!! http://thunderstorm.vaisala.com/explorer.html
Day 2 outlook puts a chance of t-storms I-94 to the south and south.
What time do you expect the rain to begin Sat? Trying to plan my Riverbank Run training around the rain. Thanks!
I just ran across a site that might be beneficial for those homes with water problems in the basement (like Harvey(Holland) ): http://www.askthebuilder.com/721_Trench_Drain.shtml My basement started having water issues this year, so I’m not looking forward to heavy rains until I can resolve some of the problems. Then I’ll enjoy thunderstorms again!
I live north of pigon creek and my sump pump is going like mad also. I did a test last weekend and unplugged the main pump and within 10 min it over ran the back up pump. I have never seen it flow that much it’s like a water fall in the tank. I still say bring on the rain lets get spring going.
My neighbors and I have been fighting drainage from a field behind our homes. Used to happen once in a while (once/year). Now it’s every time it rains. (all last year too, not just frozen ground thing). I bought a gas pump and hose Dec. 28 when the rain and warm period was upon us. Huge problem. Any suggestions? Call Ducks Unlimited?
I hope this upcoming rain event stays south of GR. The White River is already causing some localized flooding, like around my house. If we get much more rain, we’ll be grabbing the canoe and paddling out. Wife is worried, but I think everything will be fine as long as we don’t get a repeat of the weekend rain event.