Hail — Kent, Michigan

2011-04-26 · near North Dorr, Kent, Michigan

Event narrative

Hail up to 1.5 inches in diameter fell in a one mile wide swath from Jamestown in extreme northeast Ottawa County through Kentwood and East Grand Rapids. The swath continued northeast towards Belding in northwest Ionia County. The swath was estimated based on the correlation of multiple spotter reports with maximum estimated hail size, NSSL hail swath track algorithm, and 0.5 degree reflectivity products form WFO-GRR WSR88D.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed during the late afternoon and evening hours of April 26 as an upper level trough and cold front approached our region. Several low topped supercells developed and produced numerous reports of large hail up to around two inches in diameter. In addition a damage survey team from the NWS Grand Rapids office determined that damage caused near Burnips in Allegan County was due to an EF-0 tornado with top winds near 85 mph that damaged buildings at the Deboer Turkey Farm and trailers around the area. In Portage, nine people were injured by a lightning strike.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.8040, -85.8150)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 289729. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.