Michigan, 2001

Flood in Michigan, February 25 to 27, 2001

February 25 to 27, 2001 · NWS DTX · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 flood, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it; 1 filed by county or forecast zone are drawn at its center, in a lighter ring. Tap one for its entry below.

  • Tornadoes
  • Tropical storms and surge
  • Floods
  • Wind
  • Hail
  • Winter weather
  • Heat and drought
  • Cold
  • Fire, smoke and dust
  • Marine and coastal
  • Other

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The toll

Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
None recorded
Crop damage
None recorded
Events
1

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.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Detroit, MI wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Feb 25, 3:50 AM EST, 9 hours 10 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Feb 25, 3:50 AM EST, 9 hours 10 minutes before
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI
350 AM EST SUN FEB 25 2001

RAIN WILL DIMINISH TO SCATTERED SHOWERS BY 8 AM AROUND SE MICHIGAN,
THEN END FOR A WHILE DURING THE LATE MORNING. WILL CONTINUE THE
URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY UNTIL ABOUT 8 AM AS THINGS
DRAIN OFF A LITTLE MORE. WILL ALSO BE KEEPING AN EYE ON MAIN RIVER
LEVELS AS THE FROZEN GROUND WILL ALLOW A LOT OF RUN OFF.

IMPRESSIVE DRY SLOT WILL TAKE OVER FROM THERE AND ATTENTION TURNS
QUICKLY TO THE WIND POTENTIAL FOR TODAY. SURFACE ANALYSIS SHOWED THE
00Z MODEL RUNS WHERE CLOSE, IF NOT A COUPLE OF MILLIBARS TOO WEAK,
AS THE SYSTEM MOVED INTO THE WESTERN GREAT LAKES. ALL OF THE MODELS
TRACK IT THROUGH EASTERN LAKE SUPERIOR AND INTO ONTARIO BY THIS
EVENING. DURING THIS TIME THEY DROP THE CENTRAL PRESSURE AT LEAST 5
MB, WITH THE ETA DROPPING IT CLOSE TO 10 MORE BY 18Z. THE ETA MAY BE
A LITTLE OVERDONE, BUT SURFACE OBS ALREADY SUPPORT SUSTAINED 25 TO
35 MPH WIND AT PRESS TIME BEHIND THE COLD FRONT, SO EVEN THE 5 MB
DEEPENING WILL JUST ADD TO THE GRADIENT FLOW. IN ADDITION, FWC WIND
GUIDANCE IS REALLY UP THERE WITH SUSTAINED WIND AROUND 25 KNOTS AT
FLINT AND MAXING OUT AT 32 KNOTS THIS AFTERNOON AT DETROIT. SO THERE
IS GOOD SUPPORT FOR A HIGH WIND WIND ADVISORY IN ALL OF SE LOWER,
ESPECIALLY IN LIGHT OF TREE LIMBS THAT WERE WEAKENED BY ICE
ACCUMULATION YESTERDAY. PLAN TO BEGIN THE HEADLINE THIS AFTERNOON
AND CONTINUE IT THROUGH THIS EVENING.

IN ADDITION TO THE GRADIENT WIND, LINGERING CONVECTIVE POTENTIAL
WILL COMPLICATE MATTERS BY ADDING A GUST COMPONENT WITH 850 FLOW
CONTINUING IN THE 40 TO 60 KNOT RANGE. THE BEST CHANCE FOR
SHOWERS, AND POSSIBLY A THUNDERSTORM, WILL BE ON THE LEADING EDGE OF
THE WRAP AROUND MOISTURE AND ALONG THE FRONT. IN THIS REGION, THE
850 TO 500 MB LAPSE RATE WILL BE PUSHING 30 AND 850 DEWPOINTS WILL
STILL BE AROUND 2C. THIS PART OF THE SYSTEM BRUSHES THROUGH THE
SAGINAW VALLEY THIS MORNING AND THAT IS WHERE SHOWERS WILL BE
LIKELY, ESPECIALLY WITH ANY DIURNAL COMPONENT THAT CAN DEVELOP.
PRECIPITATION CHANCES THEN DIMINISH TO THE SOUTH AS UPPER SUPPORT
WANES TOWARD OHIO, BUT FRONTAL CONVERGENCE AND ANY ADDED INSTABILITY
FROM DAYTIME HEATING WILL NOT ALLOW US TO RULE OUT THUNDER IN THE
SOUTH SECTIONS AS WELL. THE DIURNAL COMPONENT WILL PLAY A GREATER
ROLE IN THE SOUTH PART OF OUR AREA AS CLEAR SKY IS SHOWING UP IN THE
DRY SLOT OVER ILLINOIS AT PRESS TIME.

THE FRONT WILL BE THROUGH SE MICHIGAN SHORTLY AFTER 18Z AND THEN
SYNOPTIC SCALE SUBSIDENCE WILL TAKE OVER AND BRING THE BEST CHANCE
OF STRONG WIND GUSTS TO A WIDER AREA. STRONG AND DEEP LAYER COLD
ADVECTION WILL GIVE FORECAST 850 MB WINDS AROUND 50 KNOTS A GOOD
CHANCE OF MAKING IT TO THE SURFACE. THE ETA LOOKS THE MOST INTENSE
WITH DOWNWARD OMEGA REACHING 5 UB BY 00Z OVER LOWER MICHIGAN, AND
HELPING JUSTIFY THE WIND ADVISORY FOR THIS EVENING. PEAK WIND GUSTS
AROUND 50 MPH AT SOME OF THE AIRPORTS SEEM REACHABLE.

THE WIND WILL DIMINISH AFTER MIDNIGHT AS THE GRADIENT RELAXES AND
SUBSIDENCE DECREASES. OUTSIDE OF A CHANCE OF SNOW SHOWERS IN THE
SAGINAW VALLEY, JUST BROKEN CLOUDS WILL BE LEFT OVER TOWARD SUNRISE
MONDAY. A WEAK CLIPPER WILL BRING AN ADDITIONAL SURGE OF COOLER AIR
DURING THE AFTERNOON, THEN HIGH PRESSURE WILL HELP DECREASE THE
CLOUDS HEADING INTO MONDAY NIGHT.

.DTX...URBAN AND SMALL STREAM FLOOD ADVISORY...UNTIL 8 AM...
       ALL OF SE MICHIGAN
       HIGH WIND ADVISORY...THIS AFTERNOON AND THIS EVENING...
       ALL OF SE MICHIGAN
       STORM WARNING...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...LAKE HURON
       GALE WARNING...THIS AFTERNOON AND TONIGHT...LAKE ST CLAIR.

BT

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Feb 25, 11:30 AM EST, 1 hour 30 minutes before
MIZ047>049-053>055-060>063-068>070-075-076-082-083-251730-

SEVERE WEATHER OUTLOOK FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI
1130 AM EST SUN FEB 25 2001

...SEVERE WEATHER POTENTIAL STATEMENT FOR SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN...

DISPATCHERS...PLEASE NOTIFY YOUR EMERGENCY MANAGERS IMMEDIATELY.

THUNDERSTORMS ARE NO LONGER EXPECTED TODAY ACROSS SOUTHEAST LOWER
MICHIGAN. THEREFORE...SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT ANTICIPATED.

A COLD FRONT WHICH WILL PASS EAST OF THE REGION BY 1 PM...WILL
CONTINUE TO PROVIDE VERY WINDY CONDITIONS ACROSS ALL OF SOUTHEAST
MICHIGAN THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO THE EVENING HOURS. SUSTAINED WIND
SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH...WITH GUSTS TO AROUND 50 CAN BE EXPECTED.
THESE WIND SPEEDS WILL DECREASE SIGNIFICANTLY OVERNIGHT.

STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...OR YOUR LOCAL RADIO...
TELEVISION...OR CABLE TELEVISION STATION...FOR LATER FORECAST
UPDATES.

STRUBLE

The radar

The national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 flood. Local standard time, as filed.

Flood, Saginaw

When
February 25, 1:00 PM EST to February 27, 7:00 AM EST
Where
Saginaw forecast zone
Reported by
OFFICIAL NWS OBS.
Coordinates
43.335, -84.053 (the zone’s center; the record gives no point)

The Shiawassee River at Fergus rose above flood stage of 10 feet at 1 pm on the 25th. The river crested at 11.6 feet at 8 pm on the 25th. The Cass River at Frankenmuth rose above flood stage of 17 feet at 8 pm on the 26th. It crested at 18 feet at 7 am on the 27th.A low pressure system passing to the north brought significant precipitation back to southeast Michigan. Around an inch of precipitation occurred, the majority of which was rain, although wintry precipitation also occurred. Snowmelt added to the runoff. Many rivers were still running high from the flooding of two weeks previous. A few instances of relatively minor river flooding resulted.

What these are

Flood
Flooding that develops more slowly than a flash flood: rivers leaving their banks, or water standing over land for an extended time.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

More

Every storm in Michigan in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Michigan, February 2001

Sources

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: 5234649.