The first Comstock Park Rotary BBQ fundraiser of the summer is this Thursday from 11 AM to 7 PM (my wife is a member). We usually get a half dozen blog readers that will stop down and say “hi”. I will be there around Noon if you want to stop by and meet me. I’ll have a few things to give out (I don’t have any more blog shirts). Stop by at noon, or on the way home from work and grab lunch or dinner and help them out. They’ve expanded from just chicken, and now have brats and ribs, too. The Comstock Park Rotary does a lot of good work in the community. They built and are helping to maintain the new Grotto Park on the North Side of the Veterans Home on Monroe, NW and with the help of Amway Employees built the new playground in the York Creek Area. It’s at Dwight Lydell Park in “downtown” Comstock Park on West River Drive, just down the road from 5th/3rd Park, with an easy on and off to US 131. They do three BBQs during the summer…the last Thursday of May, June and August. Advance Orders will be taken for pick up. Call (616) 437-5567 or e-mail gregwares@charter.net by mid-morning. If you order 15 or more dinners, they’ll deliver within 10 miles. They’ve got a thousand dinners to sell and I hope they sell them all by 7 PM. There’s a large gazebo there and we’ll have a tent up to get out of any showers (that clown may need the umbrella!). We do have a chance of showers, so you might consider getting BBQ to go.  This is a big fundraiser and it’ll be a challenge to sell out on a cool, breezy and damp day.  Hope some of you will consider stopping by and helping out. Click here for pictures of a past BBQ. We got a nice on-air plug from WOOD-AM last time out and we had a number of people show up after they heard about it on the radio with Gary and Steve.

Rain and Severe Weather Threads are below this one.

   4:30 pm -  Showers this evening and a few embedded thundershowers.  1.15″ of rain at Muskegon so far, to as little as 0.02 at Battle Creek.   Cooler air moves in for Thurs. to Sat.  It’s only been in the low 40s along the Lake Superior shore much of today.  No severe weather reported, though an isolated strong wind gust, small hail and brief heavy rain is possible.  I can’t totally rule out a small tornado somewhere, mainly in eastern Lower Michigan, but that’s not the most likely scenario.   Here’s the GRR NWS discussion.  Use the links below and in the next couple threads to keep up with the weather. Watch for updates on WOOD-TV. For current Michigan weather observations and wind speeds, click here. Here’s WOOD-TV Interactive Radar, looping radar. Check out regional radar, GRR radar, northern Indiana radar, Chicago radar and Milwaukee radar. Here’s the College of DuPage Radar Map, the local warning/advisory map and the National warning/watch/advisory map, and a surface weather map. You can checkout the latest Grand Rapids NWS discussion, the Northern Indiana NWS discussion (includes the Michigan Counties that border Indiana), the discussion for Northern Lower Michigan, and Eastern Lower Michigan. Here’s the Spyglass Condos Weather Station the S. Haven GLERL station, the Muskegon GLERL station, the Grand Haven Steelheaders webcam and weather station, and the weather station at Holland State Park. Check out the WOOD lightning tracker and U.S. lightning, the Maranatha Webcam at Lake Michigan and links to webcams. Here’s the infrared satellite loop (night) and the visible satellite loop (daytime), Lake Michigan water temperatures. Links for watches and warnings in the thread below this one regarding severe weather and the latest from the Storm Prediction Center.

  7:10 PM update:  There was some wind damage in SE Michigan.  Winds were clocked at 54 mph in Detroit, 57 mph at Canton and 60 mph east of Milford.  There has been damage to trees and power lines.  There is an area of thunderstorms from Hillsdale to P0rt Huron and wind damage is still possible east of that line.  This is the Day 1 severe t-storm outlook from the Storm Prediction Center.   The Slight Risk is SE of a line from S. Bend to Saginaw.  I think the odds of additional severe weather in our area is small.  1.8″ of rain today at Hesperia.  Flood Advisories from Ottawa/Kent north to US 10. Check out the GRR NWS discussion and the latest surface map.   At 2 PM – the surface map shows the low pressure center over Lake Michigan northwest of Muskegon.  You can see the cold air in the U.P. which will be over us tomorrow.  There was one injury from baseball-sized hail in Roscoe NY and evacuations from flooding at Schenectady NY.

Check out the Day 2 categorical probabilities.

Check out Regional radar to see the rain across the Great Lakes. Here’s GRR radar, local lightning data, meso-discussions and current watches from SPC and a satellite loop. Here’s current Michigan temperatures, National lightning data and the latest discussion from GRR NWS. Here’s National Storm Reports for today and yesterday.  Here’s a live pic. of the beach at Grand Haven,  Here’s the latest Grand Rapids NWS discussion.

RED WINGS WIN, 3-1.  They have a 2-1 game lead on Chicago heading into game 3.

    The Moore Oklahoma tornado has been upgraded to a low end EF5 with peak winds of 200-210 mph.  Here’s the summary statement from the NWS in Norman.  The statement says:  “This information remains preliminary and the information here could change.”  The tornado was on the ground for 50 minutes and traveled 17 miles.  The maximum width was 1.3 miles.  KFOR picture gallery.   Picture of enormous hail that accompanied the storm from KFOR and radar image at the point it was at or near EF5.  Here’s more excellent pictures and video.  Here’s the 10 deadliest tornadoes in U.S. history.  Aerial pictures of the tornado damage.   More tornado and damage pictures.  More incredible damage pictures.   Check out our special on the Hudsonville-Standale Tornado, the only F5/EF5 tornado ever to hit West Michigan.

  1:55 PM Tue. update:  There’s been a Severe T-Storm Watch for Moore OK.  Heavy thunderstorms are moving through this afternoon.  101 people were rescued last night!  State medical examiner’s office: says 24 people were killed Monday, including 9 children. They have been identified. Spokeswoman Amy Elliott says multiple reports of the same victims and downed phone lines caused confusion leading to previously higher death tolls. It was estimated that there were 75 children at the Plaza Towers School when the tornado hit.  NWS survey teams are viewing damage.  At this point, the tornado is rated as a high-end EF4 with winds of 190 mph.  The tornado warning was issued at 2:40 PM, the first touchdown was at 2:56 PM 4 1/2 miles west of Newcastle.  At 3:01 PM, a rare “TORNADO EMERGENCY STATEMENT” was issued.  The tornado lifted at 3:36 PM west of Lake Stanley Draper.  The city of Moore has no running water and that is a high priority.  There are hundreds of people that are homeless and efforts are being made to house the victims.  Hundreds of extra relief workers have come from out-of-state, esp. Texas/Louisiana.  30-40 faith based groups are working (debris clean-up, food – water, and shelter – chain saws).   Graduation will be held Saturday for the 3 high schools.  The twister formed near Newcastle and crossed both I-44 and I-35 (which was closed for much of Mon. PM because of the amount of debris on the road).  The tornado appears to have started at approx. 2:56 PM and traveled at least 20 miles in 40 minutes.  There’s a nice map at this site that shows the tornado path through Moore, OK. and the location of the two elementary schools and the Moore Medical Center (the town hospital that was destroyed with no loss of life).  There is already a good Wikipedia article on the storm.  The death toll still stands as 24 dead…, 242 injured.  Picture is the hospital in Moore (look at this picture!), the Moore Medical Center, (click the pic. to enlarge).  All staff and patients was accounted for at the Medical Center.  Tulsa getting debris from the Moore Tornado – 90 miles away.   Debris was falling in Branson, Missouri – 250 miles to the east-northeast.   This will likely be an EF5 tornado.  BTW, here’s a list of F5/EF5 tornadoes, which includes the two F5 tornadoes that hit Michigan, the Hudsonville-Stanwood tornado of 1956 and the Flint-Beecher Tornado of 1953.   Among the 91 fatalities in Moore,. a mother and baby and a family of four near 4th St. and Telephone Rd. in Moore.     KFOR’s Lance West: search and rescue said there don’t appear to be any more survivors at Plaza Towers Elementary.   Seven children’s bodies were removed from the school, and they believed 20 to 30 more children were inside and 2 janitors, but do not believe there are any more survivors.  Moore, Oklahoma was hit by a massive tornado on May 3, 1999.   There were 11 fatalities and 293 injured in the town of Moore in the 1999 tornado.    As the 1999 tornado moved into Oklahoma City, a mobile Doppler weather Radar recorded a gust within the tornado that reached 318 mph (512 kph) That was an EF5 (almost the world’s first EF6!)  A significant tornado also hit more in 2003.  Southwest Medical Center has 9 in critical condition and 9 serious.  More than 60 people are reported injured.  Over 30 people are being treated at the hospital in Normal.  I visited Moore, OK after the 1999 tornado and spent about an hour at the fire station talking to first responders.  Two good things here.  First, Oklahoma has an excellent tornado response.  They’ve done this many times before and instantly medical and rescue personnel are assigned by GPS.  Second, even with a long-track and wide tornado, the area affected is small (15-20 sq. miles) as opposed to a much larger hurricane or a major derecho thunderstorm complex.  Case studies will be done on this storm – to dissect it – to see if the storm to the south (cell merger?) contributed to the rapid increase in wind within the twister – and on who survived and how.  Oklahoma, like much of the south, has few basements due to the expandable clay soil (or hard bedrock in other parts of the south.  I talked to a builder when I was in Moore.  He said to build a basement would cost over $50,000 – trucking down soil from N. Kansas to surround the basement and installing a drainage system.   Here’s a satellite loop of the storms.  Home after home destroyed.  From Cort – image of the tornado bearing down on Moore OK on radar.  Child pulled from the rubble of the school.  Radar loop of the Moore tornado.

   Gusts shortly before 2 AM Tues:  54 mph gust on the beach at Muskegon, 45 mph wind at the S. Haven beach and 46 mph at Michigan City IN.  There was a gust to 72 mph reported at Spyglass in Holland, but that station often reads too high.   Chicago lakeshore had a gust to 59 mph, along with very heavy rain.  Penny-sized hail at Whiting IN.  Heaviest rain in W. Michigan on Monday was at Belding (1.03″) and Mt. Pleasant (1.35″).  WOOD-TV had 0.87″, much of which came in 10 minutes!  Those are areas to watch today in case of heavy rain that might cause some ponding of water.   Glenview IL had 0.87″ of rain in 1/2 hour.  There was a Flash Flood Warning for the Chicago Area.    We’ll continue to monitor the possibility of strong storms this afternoon and evening.

    SPC issued a Severe Thunderstorm Watch until 4 AM for most of S. Wisconsin and N. Illnois.  Note that it’s not a tornado watch.  They are going to issue a Watch for NW Indiana.     They say:  “00Z REGIONAL SOUNDINGS INDICATE THE PRESENCE OF A MODERATELY UNSTABLE AIR MASS WHICH, WHEN COUPLED WITH A STRENGTHENING DEEP-LAYER WIND FIELD WILL PROMOTE ORGANIZED STORM STRUCTURES CAPABLE OF DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL.”  We continue to track the storms.  This area of showers and storms is likely to move into West Michigan after 2 AM.  Here’s severe reports from NE Illinois.

      New Meso-Discussion for NE Illinois.  SPC says:  “THE ENVIRONMENT APPEARS SUPPORTIVE OF ORGANIZED STORM MODES…INCLUDING SUPERCELLS AND BOWING STRUCTURES WITH A RISK FOR DAMAGING WINDS…LARGE HAIL…AND PERHAPS A TORNADO.”  Strong storms near Peoria are moving toward Chicago.  Those storms will likely move into W Michigan after 1 AM.    The Severe Thunderstorm Watch has expired for all of Lower MI.   There’s a new Tornado Watch for W. Illinois.  Hail up to golfball-size fell in NE G.R. near the Beltline and Leonard and also in Mecosta Co. near Rodney.  Hail to 1 1/4″ fell at Oxbow in Newaygo Co.  Winds over 70 mph downed large trees just east of Alma.  Winds of 50 mph downed limbs in Hudsonville and Grand Rapids.  Wind damage in Belding and Waucosta.  We had 3/4″ of rain in about 10 minutes downtown.  A manhole cover popped on Fulton St. and several cars were stranded in the standing water there.   Leave a comment below if you get hail or strong winds.    Tornado Emergency in Oklahoma…massive tornado hit Moore.  Multiple fatalities there.  Hospital and two elementary school destroyed in Moore.  I’ve got a separate thread above for that.

    Radar at the top of the blog for the showers/storms the next couple days.    Showers and storms moving into W. Illinois should reach our area after 2 AM.  At 10:25 PM, there is a tornado watch out for Western Illinois and a Severe T-Storm Watch for northeast IL and southeast WI.    More from GRR NWS.   The greatest threat will be isolated wind damage.  The overnight run of the European model gives G.R. 1.92″ of rain between Mon. and Thurs. night.  Here’s the GRR NWS discussion.  We have a chance of at least isolated storms for  Tuesday and Wednesday in Lower Michigan.   Use the links below and in the next couple threads to keep up with the weather.  Watch for updates on WOOD-TV.   For current Michigan weather observations and wind speeds, click here. Here’s WOOD-TV Interactive Radar, looping radar. Check out regional radar, GRR radar, northern Indiana radar, Chicago radar and Milwaukee radar. Here’s the College of DuPage Radar Map, the local warning/advisory map and the National warning/watch/advisory map, and a surface weather map. You can checkout the latest Grand Rapids NWS discussion, the Northern Indiana NWS discussion (includes the Michigan Counties that border Indiana), the discussion for Northern Lower Michigan, and Eastern Lower Michigan. Here’s the Spyglass Condos Weather Station the S. Haven GLERL station, the Muskegon GLERL station, the Grand Haven Steelheaders webcam and weather station, and the weather station at Holland State Park. Check out the WOOD lightning tracker and U.S. lightning, the Maranatha Webcam at Lake Michigan and links to webcams. Here’s the infrared satellite loop (night) and the visible satellite loop (daytime), Lake Michigan water temperatures.  Links for watches and warnings in the thread below this one.