Wow... I sure picked a good week to have vacation scheduled, missing out on severe storms with damaging winds, flooding rains, and tornadoes!
Here's the link to check out the latest hydrograph for the Grand River near Ionia from the National Weather Service.
As of right now, the river has crested at Ionia, and water will slowly recede early this week. Here's the part that seems a little odd: the Grand River is technically speaking NOT flooding... it is only above what is called the "action stage." That's basically the level at which there are impacts that people will notice. Unfortunately, because the Ionia Fairgrounds sit so low along the river, those impacts were VERY noticeable for those attending the Birthday Bash. Notice at the bottom of the page the list of river levels that affect the fairgrounds; the water really needs to drop below about 15 feet before problems come to an end. That's expected sometime on Wednesday.
But that's not all! Somewhat unnoticed amid the flooding rain Friday evening was a series of three tornadoes in southern Allegan and northern Kalamazoo counties.
Here is the link to the National Weather Service's summary of the Friday events.
I even saw a report from Fulton County, Indiana (about 45 minutes south of South Bend) of grapefruit (4" diameter) hail!
Here's hoping the first few days of summer bring us a chance to enjoy some more pleasant weather!
Here's the link to check out the latest hydrograph for the Grand River near Ionia from the National Weather Service.
As of right now, the river has crested at Ionia, and water will slowly recede early this week. Here's the part that seems a little odd: the Grand River is technically speaking NOT flooding... it is only above what is called the "action stage." That's basically the level at which there are impacts that people will notice. Unfortunately, because the Ionia Fairgrounds sit so low along the river, those impacts were VERY noticeable for those attending the Birthday Bash. Notice at the bottom of the page the list of river levels that affect the fairgrounds; the water really needs to drop below about 15 feet before problems come to an end. That's expected sometime on Wednesday.
But that's not all! Somewhat unnoticed amid the flooding rain Friday evening was a series of three tornadoes in southern Allegan and northern Kalamazoo counties.
Here is the link to the National Weather Service's summary of the Friday events.
I even saw a report from Fulton County, Indiana (about 45 minutes south of South Bend) of grapefruit (4" diameter) hail!
Here's hoping the first few days of summer bring us a chance to enjoy some more pleasant weather!
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