Thunderstorm Wind in Saginaw County, Michigan

Temperatures climbing into the low to mid 90s with dew points in the low to mid 70s Tuesday afternoon lead to heat indices reaching around 100 degrees across most of southeast Michigan. This hot and humid airmass fueled an expanding line of strong to severe thunderstorms which moved through southeast Michigan just before 4 PM and 7 PM. Wind gusts of 40-65 MPH impacted the majority of southeast Michigan, downing tree limbs and trees. Isolated stronger gusts between 66-76 mph were also observed across the Detroit Metro Area. In total, about 380,000 customers lost power in Michigan, with around 210,000 in the DTE service area/southeast Michigan region. Just about every county in southeast Michigan experienced at least minor tree damage. Due to the rapid movement of the line of thunderstorms, rainfall totals were limited to under 1 inch across the majority of the area. Much heavier rainfall occurred with thunderstorms moving through Washtenaw and Wayne counties Tuesday night, leading to total rainfall totals around 3 inches in Ann Arbor.