A historical look at Michigan hurricanes

When we think of hurricanes, we don’t necessarily think of the Great Lakes State. And while Michigan has never experienced a hurricane, we have certainly seen the remnants of several over the past 100 years.

Although Hurricane Beryl was downgraded to a tropical storm shortly after making landfall in the United States, its remnants had significant impacts here in the Midwest, bringing heavy rains and strong winds.

While the official figures are still being evaluated by the National Weather Service, initial reports indicate that the East Lansing region recorded the heaviest rainfall: 10.6 cm of rain fell here during the night from Tuesday (July 9) to Wednesday morning.

A historical look at the hurricane’s impact on Michigan

While Beryl will likely go down in history as one of the most significant systems to bring heavy rainfall to southern Michigan, there have been 15 instances in the past of hurricane remnants reaching the Great Lakes state. Of course, the National Weather Service didn’t begin collecting hurricane data until about 100 years ago, in 1921.

According to NWS, the First The tropical storm that brought rain to Michigan occurred in 1923. On October 18 of that year, 0.55 inches of rain fell in Michigan, with wind gusts up to 22 miles per hour.

Fun fact: In the USA, female names for storms were first used in 1953. Male names were not introduced until 1978.

The worst storms in Michigan

The largest tropical storm to bring its remnants to Michigan was in 1932, long before storms were even given names. This hurricane developed in the Caribbean in late August and then slowly moved northeast into Michigan. On September 2 and 3, this system dropped 2.55 inches of rain on the Detroit area. On September 4, another 0.5 inches fell, bringing the storm’s total to about three inches of rain.

In 1968, Tropical Storm Candy formed off the coast of eastern Mexico. A few days later, the storm weakened and moved into Michigan, where it produced persistent rain and thunderstorms. This storm brought a total of 2.55 inches of rain to southeast Michigan.