Northern Michigan has been dealing with warm weather for a very long time now. This past month was no exception!
The month was full of ups and downs. The month started active with strong storms and even one storm strong enough to produce a tornado. On June 5, a weak tornado was reported in Roscommon County at the Forest Dunes Golf Club.
Officially, an EF-0 tornado with winds of up to 80 mph caused damage at the golf club. It was on the ground for .3 miles or 1 minute with an estimated width of 90 yards.
The NWS noted a couple dozen trees were uprooted and 3 trees fell on the roof of a home.
After this storm system, the atmosphere cooled down for several days with highs back in the 60s to low 70s.
Temperatures then started warming back up for the middle of the month.
We reached into the 80s and 90s with heat indices over 100 in spots. This is when overnight lows were mostly in the 70s.
This made for hot and sticky conditions.
Temperatures then took a drop setting off another round of severe weather!
This was another weak tornado that caused minor damage in Gladwin County.
The National Weather Service confirmed the tornado with a rating of EF-1. It had maximum wind speeds of 90 mph, and was on the ground for about 10 miles. The tornado touched down in the Lake Lancer area and ended near the East branch of the Tittabawassee River. It was on the ground for 22 minutes and caused some minor home damage, but mostly damage to trees.
There was another wave of strong to severe storms just a few days later coming through in the early morning hours.
This complex produced major damage in Muskegon County with 10s of thousands of customers without power.
After that system, highs were back in the 60s to low 70s with some crisp overnight lows.
The contrast of temps produced a lot of active weather and also delivered a wet month.
As you can see, Alpena was WAY above average with more than 3 and half inches above normal. This made it the 5th wettest June on record for Alpena.
Warm and wet weather got things growing quickly. Just look at my car: Look at all the mayflies
Or how about this field.... over the past 3 years it never looked this green!
Gaylord and Sault Ste. Marie both ended up with the 8th wettest June on record.
Traverse City and Houghton Lake were both above their averages but by less than 1″.