Hot, dry and windy weather, along with abundant dry fuel left over from winter set the stage and careless campers and an unattended campfire added the spark to start a major wildfire in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Tower Lake Fire consumed 5,625 acres before it was extinguished.
Every event with a place to put it; 4 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS MQT wrote it up.
Hot, dry and windy weather, along with abundant dry fuel left over from winter set the stage and careless campers and an unattended campfire added the spark to start a major wildfire in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Tower Lake Fire consumed 5,625 acres before it was extinguished. Firefighters and equipment from Montana, Missouri, Minnesota, Wisconsin and Ontario Canada assisted local fire crews in fighting the blaze. 450 people were evacuated from their homes for the more than four days it took to fight the fire. Four firefighters suffered minor injuries and 15 structures were damaged or destroyed. Ten bridges burned and about a million dollars worth of timber went up in smoke. Costs for fighting the blaze exceed one million dollars. Three much smaller forest fires occurred during the same period the Tower Lake Fire was burning. The fire near Gwinn consumed 46 acres with minor damage to a campground at Anderson Lake, The Ishpeming Fire did some minor damage at a golf course and burned 26 acres, and a fire at Little Lake, set by vandals, scorched another 19 acres.
The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
4 wildfire. Local standard time, as filed.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Michigan in 1999Every state in 1999This day in weather historyWarnings in Michigan, May 1999
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5699132, 5699133, 5699134, 5699135.