Grand Rapids, MI

Weather Forecast Office

Event Summaries

Thunderstorms / Tornadoes
Flooding
Winter
Other

Severe Thunderstorms & Tornadoes

The following summaries cover "significant" or widespread thunderstorm outbreaks and tornadoes. Tornadoes, hail, wind damage, and associated flooding impacts can be found in these summaries. If the event was focused mainly on flooding it will be found under the "Flooding" section.

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2025

May 15: Squall Line with Damaging winds and Destructive Tornadoes through Southwest Michigan
Mar 30: Squall Line with destructive Winds and Tornadoes Across Lower Michigan including 8 Tornadoes

2024

Jun 25: Damaging Morning Squall Line doing county wide damage to Muskegon County
May 7: Portage EF-2 Tornado
Feb 27-28: Record Highs, Damaging Winds and Hail and Rare February Calhoun County Tornado

2023

Aug 24: EF-1 Tornado north of Grand Rapids and EF-2 near Lansing with Wind Damage along I-96 corridor

2022

Sep 25: Gusty lakeshore winds
Sep 21: Large Hail through Central Michigan
Aug 29: Wind damage and heavy rain across Lower Michigan
Aug 03: Wind damage and heavy rain across Southern Lower Michigan
Jul 23-24: Wind damage and heavy rain along and south of the I 96 corridor
Jun 13-14: Wind damage and large hail mainly south of the I-94 corridor

2021

Sep 07: Widespread Wind Damage and Large Hail across Lower Peninsula
Aug 10 - 12: Dorr Tornado and significant Flooding in Lansing and Jackson
Jul 29: Wind Damage to Southwest Michigan and Chicago land region
Jul 24: Wind Damage through Lower Michigan and heavy rainfall in Eastern Michigan
Jun 26: 6 Tornadoes through Lower Peninsula with 3 day heavy rainfall
Jun 12: Golf Ball size hail from Mountain Pleasant to southeast of St. Johns
Jun 11: Wind Damage through Central Michigan
Apr 10: Brief Tornado near Byron Center

2020

Apr 07: Near baseball size Hail near Plainwell and Damaging wind across southern Lower Michigan
Jun 10: Damaging winds across southern Lower Michigan
Jun 26: Damaging Winds and Heavy Rainfall along I-94 Corridor
Aug 10:Multi-State Derecho with Heavy Rain and a Meteotsunami on Lake Michigan

2019

Mar 14: Tornado and Severe Weather Event in SE Michigan
May 19: Barry County Tornado
Jun 01: Battle Creek Severe Hail and Wind Event
Jul 20: High Wind Event through Western Lower Michigan
Aug 29: Large Hail and Funnel Clouds
Sep 11: Damaging Winds through greater Grand Rapids area

2018

Aug 28: Multi State Severe weather event with 6 tornadoes in Michigan
Sep 01: 4 Tornadoes through Southern Lower Michigan on Labor Day

2017

Apr 10: Kent and Ionia County EF-1 Tornado
Jun 30: EF-0 Landspout near Grand Junction, MI
Jul 07: Severe winds across western Lower Michigan

2016

Aug 12: Allegan County Tornado Event
Aug 20: Western Lower Michigan Tornado Event

2015

Aug 02: Damaging wind and hail Sunday August 2nd, 2015 in Southwest Michigan
Nov 11-13: Power Outages and damaging winds along and south of the I 96 corridor with lakeshore flooding
Aug 14: Severe Thunderstorms with Hail across Central lower Michigan
Jun 22: Portland EF-1 Tornado

2014

Jul 07: Tornadoes in Ionia and Clinton Counties
Jul 06: Kentwood EF-1 Tornado

2008

Jun 07-08: Deadly Thunderstorms Winds, Tornadoes, and Floods across Michigan

Historic

Nov 17, 2013: Multiple Tornadoes with straight line wind damage to Mattawan, Michigan and widespread tree damage in Clare County
May 31, 1998: Historic Multi State Derecho Event with wind speeds as high as 130 mph
Apr 11, 1965: Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak
Apr 3, 1956: Tornado Outbreak
May 13, 1980: F-3 Kalamazoo Tornado
Jun 24, 1950: Northwest Airlines Flight 2501

Flooding

The following summaries cover "significant" or widespread flooding. River and flash flooding can be found in these summaries. If the flooding event accompanied severe thunderstorms or tornado outbreaks, it will likely be included in that event's summary under the "Thunderstorms / Tornadoes" section.

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2025

2024

2023

2022

May 11: Damaging Flooding in Big Rapids, Heavy rain from Big Rapids to Mt. Pleasant
Feb 17: Heavy Rain with Snowmelt, and River Flooding along Buck Creek in Wyoming, MI. Followed by Heavy Snow in Southeast Lower Michigan

2021

May 23: Reed City flooding Event

2020

Nov 01: Strong Winds and Lakeshore Flooding, especially at South Haven, Michigan
May 17-18: Widespread Heavy Rain with Flooding along the Muskegon and Grand Rivers
Late April: Heavy Rainfall with highest amounts in Ottawa and Muskegon Counties along with damaging Lakeshore flooding

2019

Jul 20: Major Flooding across Mason and Lake Counties with a new Heavy rainfall Record for Michigan.
Jul 04: Minor Flooding in and around Caledonia from Heavy Rain
Jun 19-20: Heavy Rainfall with Flooding from Kalamazoo to Lansing, especially at Western Michigan University
Mar 14: Snow Melt Flooding north of I-96

2017

Oct 22-24: Heavy Rainfall along the Western half of the Lower peninsula. Wettest October on Record
Jun 23: Mount Pleasant Flooding. Worst flooding along Chippewa River since 1986

2016

Feb 02: Record Rainfall in February at Grand Rapids and Muskegon
Aug 15-16: Heavy Rain and Flooding Event

2015

Aug 10: Lansing Record Rainfall and Flood

Historic

Coming Soon!

Winter Weather

The following summaries cover significant or widespread winter storms. Heavy snow, sleet, freezing rain, blizzards, and extreme cold can be found in these summaries.

2026

Jan 19-24: Winter Storm and Record Cold Snap

2024

Jan 12-14: Winter Storm with 30+ inches of snow in 5 days along and west of US 131
Dec 04-05-14: Winter Storm with Snow Squalls

2023

Mar 03-04: Winter Storm with Heavy snow through south eastern Michigan
Feb 22-23: Major Ice Storm along and South of I 96; Heavy snow northward of I-96

2022

Dec 22-25: Lake Effect Blizzard with heavy snow amounts in Grand Rapids
Dec 15: Freezing Rain along and north of I-96 with Damaging winds across southern lower Michigan
Nov 14: Heavy Lake Effect snow band just East of Ludington
Feb 25: Synoptic Scale Snowstorm early in AM Central Lower Michigan
Feb 17: Snow Following Heavy Rain, Snowmelt, and River Flooding
Feb 02: Record Snowfall in Lansing
Jan 05-07: Near Blizzard conditions with Heavy Lake Effect snow

2021

Feb 15-16: Heavy Snow early Monday February 15th with impacts to the morning commute across Lower MI
Feb 08: Mesoscale Snow Band - Ottawa County
Feb 04-06: Heavy Snow Event across Western half of Lower Michigan

2020

Jan 11: Record Rainfall with Flooding in Delton, MI; Freezing Rain and Sleet across Lower Michigan
Jan 17-19 Heavy Wet Snow across Lower Michigan
Feb 05-06 Warm Frontal Snowfall across southwest corner of Michigan
Feb 07: Narrow Bands of Snow in between the I-96 and I-94 corridors.
Feb 09 Snowfall across the Northern half of the Lower Peninsula
Feb 12-13 Widespread 1-2 inches with higher amounts in Ottawa county
Feb 17-18 2 to 5 inch snowfall event across Lower Michigan
Feb 25-26: Snow Event across Southeastern half of Lower Peninsula
Dec 11-12: Central and Northern MI Heavy Snow Event
Dec 24 -25: Synoptic and Lake effect Snow Event
Dec 29-30: Heavy Wet Snow Central Lower Michigan

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2019

Jan 28 - 31: Multi State Arctic Outbreak Caused Days of Snow, Low Visibility, and Extreme Cold
Jan 29-30:Lake Enhanced Snow Event
Feb 06-07: Waves of Freezing Rain across Central Lower Michigan
Feb 24-25: Blizzard Conditions and High Winds
Apr 14: Late Season Winter Storm with Broken Daily Snowfall Records
Nov 11-12: Early Season Snowfall and Cold
Dec 10-11 Lake effect Snow
Dec 31: Lake Enhanced Snow Event

2018

Late December 2017/Early January 2018: Cold Wave and Lake-Effect Snow

2017

Dec 11-13: Alberta Clipper System and Lake-Effect Snow
Dec 24-31: Week of Snow and Cold

2016

Feb 9-11: Winter Storm and Lake-Effect Snow
Feb 24-25: Winter Storm that brought 6 to 14 inches of snow across Central Michigan

2015

Nov 21: Winter Storm with heavy snow across Southern half of lower Peninsula
Nov 11-13: Winter Storm with high winds and power outages
Dec 18: Lake-Effect Snow heaviest in southern Van Buren county
Dec 28, 2015 Winter Storm Summary Sleet, Freezing Rain, and Strong Winds across the Lower Peninsula

2013

Dec 21-22: Ice Storm with Heavy Ice South of Lansing

2011

Feb 02: Historic Blizzard

2006

Oct 12 - Early Season Snowfall

Historic

The Blizzard of February 2 2011
The Great Blizzard of January 26-27 1978
The Blizzard of January 26-27 1967
The April 16 1961 Heavy Snowstorm
Armistice Day Storm of November 11 1940 - Thanks to NWS La Cross
The "White Hurricane" Storm of November 1913 - Thanks for NWS Detroit for Creating This Study!

Other Events

The following summaries cover events that don't fall under the other categories - such as high wind events (not associated with thunderstorms) and heat waves. Stories about regional storms not directly related to Western Lower Michigan may be found here, as well.

45th Anniversary of Edmund Fitzgerald - Thanks to NWS Marquette for Creating This Story!
Storm that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald - Thanks to NWS Marquette for Creating This Story!
October 16, 2019: High Winds and Beach Erosion
October 22, 2019: High Winds and Beach Erosion - Part 2
December 11 2021 High Wind Event

2015

Dec 23-24, 2015: High Winds and Record High Temperatures
Nov 2015 Climate Summary
Fall 2015 Climate Summary
Pier Safety This Fall
Oct 2015 Climate Summary
Labor Day Weather Extremes
Upwelling Produces Cooler Water
Grand Rapids Reaches 90 Degrees
Michigan Earthquake June 30
Smoke Hampers Sunny Day: June 9
Spring 2015 Climate Summary
May 2015 Climate Summary
Michigan Earthquake May 2

Hurricane Lowell to Impact Kauai; Heat Continues in the South-Central U.S.

Event Summaries