WEST MICHIGAN — After an active Saturday of weather with at least one tornado confirmed as of this writing, much more tranquil weather is expected today. The cold front that bought the tornadic thunderstorms to the FOX 17 viewing area yesterday has pushed to the southeast of us, and cooler, drier, more stable air has moved in. Here is a look at the surface map this morning:
There is a second cold front — shown in the above image — that will clear the area today as well. This will reinforce the cooler than average temperatures, and increase our shower coverage somewhat. We’re still not expecting heavy rain by any means today. Our Future Track HD model suggests we’ll see 0.1″ of rain or less:
With low pressure to our northeast and high pressure building in from the west, we expect some fairly strong winds today as well. West to northwesterly winds could gust over 30 mph today, especially along the shore of Lake Michigan. In fact, there is a small craft advisory in effect today along with a high beach hazard risk due to the likelihood of rip currents:
In the meantime, the National Weather Service (NWS) will be out surveying the damage from yesterday’s storms through the course of the day. They’ve already completed the damage survey for the tornado that impacted Ionia and Montcalm counties. As we told you in a previous article, that tornado was rated an EF 1 with maximum winds estimated at 90 mph. It was approximately 100 yards wide, and took a path that was 8 miles long:
We’ll have more information on the storm that impacted Van Buren, Allegan, Ottawa, and Kent counties later today. We will keep you updated on the results of the associated NWS damage survey and have the latest information when it becomes available.
