Waterspouts and Hail
September 22nd, 2012 at 12:25 pm by Bill Steffen under Bill's Blog, News, Weather
Waterspouts, thunderstorms, significant hail and a possible tornado touchdown this morning! The possible tornado touchdown was at mile marker 24 on I-196, about 4 miles north of S. Haven. Waterspouts/funnels have been seen off White Lake, Pere Marquette Park in Muskegon and off Tunnel Park in Holland. Hail piled up 1 1/2 inches deep near Mattawan, causing slide-offs on I-94. Some of the hail in Van Buren and Kalamazoo County was nearly an inch in diameter. Hail has been reported in Holland, Allegan, Lawrence, Douglas, Paw Paw, S. Haven, Vicksburg, Schoolcraft, Gobles, Stevensville and at Warren Dunes State Park. The threat of more waterspouts and hail continues this afternoon and evening. Here’s storm reports from GRR NWS. Here’s what SPC says: “SRN LOWER MI INTO NRN IND/OH THIS AFTERNOON INTO EVENING… INTENSE DEEP-LAYER FORCING FOR ASCENT AHEAD OF THE VORTICITY MAXIMUM MENTIONED IN THE SYNOPSIS IS SUPPORTING ONGOING TSTMS OVER SRN LOWER MI. THIS ACTIVITY IS SITUATED AHEAD OF A SECONDARY COLD FRONT WHICH WILL SWEEP SEWD THROUGH MUCH OF THE OH VALLEY TODAY. GIVEN RESIDUAL DEWPOINTS OF AROUND 50 F…DAYTIME HEATING…AND CONSIDERABLE COOLING ALOFT…EXPECT PRE-FRONTAL AIR MASS TO BECOME WEAKLY UNSTABLE AND SUPPORTIVE OF ISOLATED SEVERE STORMS CAPABLE OF HAIL AND LOCALLY STRONG WIND GUSTS INTO THIS EVENING.” Here’s Storm Reports from Friday – gust to 65 mph at Indianapolis. Over 1.1″ of rain in Marshall. I had a report of 0.91″ at Kalamazoo and a 1.39″ at Holland – quite a soaking. Also, 0.62″ Battle Creek, 0.61″ Benton Harbor, 0.46″ Jackson, 0.30″ Grand Rapids, 0.27″ Lansing, 0.13″ Muskegon. These are 2-day totals. At 1:20 PM – solid showers and storms along I-94 from the lakeshore past Jackson.
I had hail with some of the overnight rain. It was piled up under the downspouts. Not much in the rain today so far.
1.1 inches of rain near Marshall so far. Looks like a lot more rain is coming.
And once again, GR can’t even squeeze out any decent rainfall.
Not a drop of rain here all day and the sun is now peeking through the clouds. I think that I will head out to the golf course and enjoy this nice day of weather!
I looked up that start garden thing that was on the news a while back… and there was a weather related startup there this week! Go check it out! Looks very cool!
http://startgarden.com/ideas/detail/warning-weather
No hail here near Kzoo but have had a decent amount of rain…almost got hit by a monster bolt of lightning this morning at our campsite!
Bupkus for rain here on Myers Lake/Rockford. Looks ominous from time to time but nothing really happening.
lake is down a good 18″ from this springs high water mark. Lottsa beach out front where there was only a few feet to begin the season.
Oh yeah, one more thing, turned the ol furnace on for the first time this fall season. 62 in the house upon awakening. Burrrr.
Some thundershowers areound noontime, with a migration into a steady soaking rain. Our Fall Fest is getting soaked, unfortunately, along with Civil War re-enactment, etc. This would have been a nice respite two months ago, but ’twas not to be, I guess. No violent weather here, except for some strong lightning early on (1100-1200). Temp 43F! Bar. 29.95 and rising in beautiful downtown Angola.
Bill will the Lake water temps rise again because I am really looking forward to a good season of Lake effect snow and now that’s not looking likely because the water temp just outside of Muskegon is now 39 and I don’t think it is usually that cold this time of year????
most people think this will be a warmer winter with below average snow, you guys might have to accept that.
Long ranges are only unreliable when it’s the forecast you don’t want.
if you say so court. you people know i hate winter so YES i hope it pans out.
Can you cite some data to back up your “most people” claim?
Accueweather (and others) are predicting higher than average snowfall this season. However, we are year two into the hotter season of the sun – it has a seasonal cycle of 11 years… It’s still undecided overall.
Hailing pea sized hail at the moment, along with down pour. Patterson 108-100th
Of course I would have been out of town this afternoon when something interesting occurred… That is my neighborhood!
It was a great day out on the golf course. It was sunny most of time with a brief 5 minute rain shower.
This must be the poster formerly known as RJ.
Maybe the R is for Rocky?
crappy temps bill.
Crappy Comment Fizzzer..
4 sure…..
just doing my part.
Listening To The Doors…People Are Strange…
What’s the waterspout potential look like tomorrow?
Well boy very exciting down here this morning thru early afternoon. Nice dumping of MUCH needed rain to help replace some water we lost during the drought.
MIZ064-065-071-072-230015-
ALLEGAN-BARRY-KALAMAZOO-VAN BUREN-
712 PM EDT SAT SEP 22 2012
…SIGNIFICANT WEATHER ADVISORY…
AT 708 PM EDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A
STRONG THUNDERSTORM 10 MILES SOUTH OF SAUGATUCK…MOVING SOUTHEAST AT
30 MPH.
FUNNEL CLOUDS…WIND GUSTS GREATER THAN 40 MPH…FREQUENT CLOUD TO
GROUND LIGHTNING…BRIEF HEAVY DOWNPOURS…ARE POSSIBLE WITH THIS
STORM.
CONDITIONS THIS EVENING CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF WHAT
METEOROLOGISTS CALL COLD AIR FUNNEL CLOUDS. THESE FUNNEL CLOUDS WILL
NORMALLY APPEAR WITH LITTLE OR NO WARNING. THEY ARE TYPICALLY
SPAWNED FROM CUMULUS CLOUDS THAT MAY NOT EVEN BE TALL ENOUGH TO
PRODUCE THUNDER AND LIGHTNING OR EVEN RAIN. COLD AIR FUNNEL CLOUDS
ARE GENERALLY WEAK AND SHORT LIVED… AND VERY RARELY TOUCH DOWN.
What is a cold air funnel?
http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/329/
I think some day down the road when Bill decides to retire, this may be known as Cort’s blog.
Still four letters in the name and one vowel, but no alliteration. Ah, just doesn’t have the same ring to it! I hope Bill never retires.
Tried to phrase that in such a way as to compliment Cort, without creating a “don’t retire Bill” firestorm, but I failed. Trust me, no one wants Bill to retire less than me.
I know what you meant, but people really get a kick out of that R word. Seems like it gets brought up (not by you) every time Bill takes a vacation too. Humorous how predictable it is.
I went to Saugatuck to waterspout spot, and watched this storm come in. It was lovely!!
You guys all know fixxxer very well so anytime he has something to say it’s going to be crapy! @Jack
Huh, I thought Crappy Comment Fizzzer, Had a Nice RING To It.. Lol….
Aw, don’t start, guys…….. we heard enough of this malarkey two months ago!!!
Bill please don’t retire anytime soon you are the best meteorologist in the state
Bill Steffen says:
July 8, 2012 at 11:48 am
And I am not retiring soon – I’m having too much fun.
I don’t blame him, it would be fun! And he is still to young to retire anyways.
Whats with all this retire talk the past 3-4 months?
Nothing. Rumors. Speculation. Read my post.
He is retiring. He told me.
Yet another lie, bigD. Do a google search for “weather blog”.
‘These recent U.S. ‘extremes’ were exceeded in previous decades’ — ‘The expression of ‘worse than we thought’ climate change as documented in [James] Hansen’s OpEd does not stand up to scrutiny’ – recent quote from the State Climatologist of Alabama
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/img/climate/globalwarming/ar4-fig-3-6.gif
Bill, do a google search of Mormon Magic Underwear or the Mormon planet where God lives. Seriously.
http://www.top10craziestmormonbeliefs.com/a/93
http://stevengoddard.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/trend-24.png
he also said that that the summer was going to be below normal temps. That didn’t happen either! lol
BTW, I know someone at Wood and lets just say that we are looking at some changes for our local NBC affiliate soon!!!!
Joanne and big D… BILL’S TIRES ARE FINE. !!!!!!!!!!…. End of Discussion….
Sorry, Jack, but it’s time to turn on…”Hit the road, Jack. Don’t you come back…”
Bill’s tires are flat.
big D….I will IF YOU….WILL………………
. Cue: Little Feat…..WILLIN…
Bill’s Winter Forecast…only 1″ off: http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/12/a_winter_dumping_or_a_dusting.html