Jessica Mathews / news@whmi.com


Michigan is off to a big start for the severe weather season and has already hit the annual average number of tornadoes from just two events.

Warning Coordination Meteorologist Jaclyn Anderson with the National Weather Service Detroit/Pontiac Office told WHMI it has been a very busy spring from the ice storm that impacted northern portions of Lower Michigan to the severe weather in March and April – marking a very active start to spring.

With tornadoes, Michigan typically sees a couple in the spring on average and last year, there was one in February. Anderson said historically tornadoes start in early spring; peak in May, June, July, and a little into August before tapering off heading into fall. She noted that later in the summer, there’s better instability and more fuel for thunderstorms so things peak in the summer months.

Anderson said were actually already above the annual average for tornadoes – currently sitting at 16 across the state so far this year from just two events. Michigan typically averages 15 tornadoes per year. For the March 30th event, she said there were 14 tornadoes within that one evening. Then on April 2nd, there were two more tornadoes in the far southwest portions of Michigan.

Anderson asserted the current numbers are not necessarily something to cause any alarm. She said there’s no real correlation between severe weather seen in early spring to how bad it will be later in the summer – we just have to wait and see what the weather brings.

Anderson said we just happened to have that one system move through and produce 14 tornadoes in one evening – noting the majority of those were very brief, short lived and very weak. She said it was not an event with multiple EF-2, EF-3, or EF-4 tornadoes – noting it has been quite some time since outbreaks like that.

With the March 30th severe thunderstorm warning, Anderson said that was one of the times the NWS actually issued warnings that had destructive severe thunderstorm wind tags. She said there were concerns with pockets of straight-line damaging winds and it was pretty rare for the weather service to issue the warning with winds up to 80mph and it’s definitely not something issued with every severe weather event.

As the severe weather reason takes off, Anderson encouraged people to be prepared and have multiple ways to receive warnings - whether through a phone app or a NOAA weather radio. She said to also make sure that wireless emergency alerts are turned on, on cellphones to get critical warnings for the times when people really need to take action.

Anderson further advised that people try to plan ahead a few days for severe weather and know ahead of time what do in case of warnings, and have communication plans in place with family or others. She suggests keeping a close eye on the forecast when severe weather is coming. Further, if people have any kind of sheltering area, she said it might be helpful to make sure those are cleaned out so they can quickly take shelter if needed.