
There are different forms of the text, but the one I see most often says something like "Mars will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye." Like most prolonged myths, it's partially based in fact -- an event sort of like this occurred in 2003. But even then, you had to use a 75x telescope in order to have Mars appear to be the same size as the moon.
When I get e-mail forwards like that, I always check them out at snopes.com. Here's their page about the "Mars Spectacular" e-mail.
Here is an impressive image of the storm total precipitation estimated by the Grand Rapids National Weather Service Doppler radar from early Monday evening.
For nearly three hours between 2 and 5 PM, strong thunderstorms produced torrential downpours and intense cloud-to-ground lightning. Spotter reports and radar data indicated that 5 to as much as 7 inches of rain fell around Belmont and Rockford in north/central Kent County! Small creeks and side street drains turned into small rivers with numerous basements flooded and a section of Childsdale Road near the Rogue River washed out.
Locations that received heavy rain on Memorial Day will have a chance to dry out on Tuesday as sunshine returns with afternoon temperatures near 80 degrees for the first day of June. More showers and a few thunderstorms will be possible again on Wednesday as the beginning of June will feature near to a bit below normal temperatures and occasionally wet weather.
