High Wind in Michigan, November 10 to 11, 1998

A very intense storm system moved north across the western Great Lakes on the 10th. This storm occurred on the 23rd anniversary of the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior, and was actually very comparable to that storm, both in regards to storm intensity and storm track. The big story with both systems were the extremely strong winds that occurred. Thankfully, this storm - as opposed to the Fitzgerald storm - was forecast days in advance, and the huge majority of marine traffic on the Great Lakes sought safe harbor before wind speeds became excessive.High winds occurred in two phases. Winds reached high wind criteria across southeast Michigan early in the afternoon of the 10th, associated with a cold front racing east across the state. A line of showers accompanied the front, locally enhancing wind speeds (see below). The strong winds slackened some during the afternoon. Wind speeds increased again in the evening, as an area of strong descent well behind the cold front allowed strong winds aloft to penetrate to ground level. The highest winds during the entire event occurred within a couple of hours of midnight. Winds diminished to below high wind criteria by dawn on the 11 th.Both periods of high winds caused significant damage across the area. In the afternoon, the walls of a church under construction were destroyed in Troy. A warehouse in Flint was deroofed, and a second warehouse roof was damaged. Large tree limbs were downed in Saginaw. Wind speeds approaching 50 mph were measured at the Coast Guard Station in Port Huron.Damage was more widespread with the higher wind speeds that occurred at night. Trees, limbs, and power lines were downed across all of southeast Michigan. The falling trees and limbs caused damage to some homes and vehicles. In Livingston County, an indirect fatality occurred, as the driver of a car was killed when he crashed into a tree that had fallen across a road. In Owosso, a roof under construction collapsed, and a church under construction in Ida (Monroe County) was also damaged. An automated weather observing station in Adrian was disabled. Near Mt Clemens, a boat rack storing a number boats of collapsed, causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage. A 70 mph wind gust was measured at the National Weather Service office in White Lake at about 1020 pm.The extended period of strong winds caused an interesting phenomena on Saginaw Bay. Southwest gales occurred over the waters of Saginaw Bay for 12 to 18 hours, acting to push water out of the bay and into the main body of Lake Huron. Water levels in Saginaw Bay dropped dramatically as a result. Previous to the storm, the water level was running about 18 inches above chart datum. Any level lower than about 4 inches above chart datum begins to interfere with navigation on Saginaw Bay. At about 5 am on the 11th, the water level on Saginaw Bay bottomed out at an amazing 50 inches below chart datum - over 5 feet below the recent average! Although detailed historical records were not available for this writing, the Coast Guard in Essexville (Bay County) reported that this was the lowest water level in recent memory. Most of Saginaw Bay is quite shallow, and the removal of over 5 feet of water exposed a huge portion of the bay bed; some estimate that up to half of the area of the bay briefly became dry land during the storm! To illustrate this point, a pair of duck hunters were stranded on an island off of Sebewaing (Huron County), as the water level dropped too far for them to be able to boat back to the mainland. However, as the water level dropped further during the night, one of the hunters was able to walk ashore, as the intervening three miles of Saginaw Bay suddenly became dry land. As the wind slackened and swung to the west toward dawn, the water level began to rise toward a more normal level.