Schedule, rankings about Michigan in the next few days

There will be thunderstorms in Michigan over the next three days. The thunderstorms will occur in a different location each day. Here’s when you can expect thunderstorms in your location in Michigan.

First, none of these thunderstorms are expected to be officially classified as severe. The official definition of a severe thunderstorm is a 58 mph gust, 1-inch diameter hailstones, or of course a tornado. The thunderstorms over the next three days will bring heavy downpours, but they won’t last very long. I’d say most of us will be hit with one or two thunderstorms lasting a half hour to an hour.

The three periods of thunderstorms are caused by two different weather patterns. Today’s thunderstorms will be more scattered than Tuesday and Wednesday’s thunderstorms. Today’s storms will be caused by heat and instability in the late afternoon. This type of thunderstorm will dissipate in the late evening and be over by midnight. The radar forecast below shows isolated thunderstorms developing over southeastern Lower Michigan between 4 and 8 p.m. today.

If you are in the Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland areas tonight, you could see a half-hour of rain. After sunset, these thunderstorms will weaken and end.

The showers and thunderstorms on Tuesday and Wednesday will come from a slow-moving cold front that is gradually winding its way through Michigan from northwest to southeast. I want to make it clear to you that this is not a cold front racing through our state.

The radar forecast below shows us the band of thunderstorms over northern, northwestern, and central-western Lower Michigan on Tuesday afternoon and then across the southeastern half of Lower Michigan on Wednesday.

So let’s quickly break down who’s getting rain on Tuesday and who’s getting rain on Wednesday.

Tuesday’s rain will fall from Cadillac to Traverse City to Charlevoix, Petoskey and the rest of northern Lower Michigan. It won’t rain all day. It will last a few hours, mostly in the afternoon. There will also be thunderstorms in the eastern Upper Peninsula on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, everything shifts to the southern half of Lower Michigan. I’ll show you afternoon rain amounts, but know that there will be showers in the morning hours in Muskegon, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Saginaw, Bay City and Midland. The morning rain will be more scattered and lighter than the afternoon thunderstorms.

Isolated heavy rain showers are expected in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Jackson, Lansing and Thumb on Wednesday afternoon and evening.

Generally, rain is expected in the Saginaw area this afternoon, in northern Michigan on Tuesday and in southern Michigan on Wednesday.

This should help you work and play in rain and storms.