Thunderstorms developed during the evening hours along an area of convergence from lake breeze boundaries off of Lake Huron. One storm developed over Gladwin county and moved into Midland.
Every event with a place to put it. 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 DTX wrote it up.
Thunderstorms developed during the evening hours along an area of convergence from lake breeze boundaries off of Lake Huron. One storm developed over Gladwin county and moved into Midland. The storm strengthened as it moved into Midland county and produced damaging winds. The storm then moved southeast into Saginaw county where it weakened. The more widespread wind damage from this storm occurred in Edenville and Hope Townships in northern Midland County. The approximate area of damage was bounded by N. Sanford lake Road on the west, 5 Mile Road on the east, Bakar Road on the north, and Shaffer Road on the south.
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 Jul 22, 2:35 PM EST, 3 hours 25 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI 335 PM EDT SUN JUL 22 2001 PROBABLY THE HOTTEST FEELING DAY YET THIS SUMMER IN PROGRESS WITH HEAT INDICES UP AROUND 100 DEGREES AT MANY LOCATIONS WITH TEMPS IN THE LOWER 90S AND DEWS IN THE LOWER 70S. ATMOSPHERE VERY UNSTABLE WITH SBCAPES RUNNING FROM 1500 TO 3000 J/KG ACROSS THE FA. WE ALSO KNOW THAT THERE ARE PLENTY OF SURFACE BOUNDARIES AROUND, BESIDES THE LAKE BREEZES, AS THEY HAVE BEEN EVIDENT IN THE VISIBLE IMAGERY ALL AFTERNOON. ONE BOUNDARY MOVED SOUTH INTO THE SAGINAW VALLEY AND THUMB EARLIER THIS MORNING FROM CONVECTION THAT MOVED ACROSS LAKE HURON. DESPITE THE STRONG INSTABILITY AND PLETHORA OF BOUNDARIES, VERY LITTLE IN THE WAY OF CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT HAS OCCURRED IN SE LOWER. A COUPLE OF CELLS HAVE RECENTLY GONE UP ALONG THE LAKE BREEZE IN HURON COUNTY. THE LACK OF CONVECTION MAY BE A RESULT OF WHAT IS SURPRISINGLY SHALLOW SURFACE MOISTURE AS KDTX 12Z SOUNDING SHOWED A LITTLE LESS THAN 100MB DEPTH TO THE JUICE. ALSO, OVERALL WEAK WIND FIELD IS OBVIOUSLY LIMITING CONVERGENCE INVOF THE BOUNDARIES. THUS, GUT FEELING WOULD BE TO GO DRY OVER ALL BUT THE LAKE BREEZE COUNTIES THIS EVENING, BUT A FEW THINGS ARGUE FOR HANGING ON TO SOME POPS FOR AT LEAST THE EVENING HOURS. THE FIRST THING IS THE DYNAMIC CONVECTIVE COMPLEX OVER ERN WI ATTM. THE CURRENT STRONG TO SEVERE STORMS FIRED ON AN OUTFLOW BOUNDARY FROM AN EARLIER COMPLEX. THIS LINE OF STORMS IS APPROACHING THE LAKE MICHIGAN LAKE BREEZE NEAR THE WI COAST ATTM. EXPECT ASSOCIATED MCV TO CONTINUE TO INITIATE CONVECTION IN HIGHLY UNSTABLE AIRMASS ACROSS THE LAKE AND INTO WESTERN LOWER THIS EVENING. CORFIDI VECTOR PROGS FROM THE ETA SUGGEST MORE AND MORE OF A RIGHT TURN AS ANY ACTIVITY APPROACHES SE LOWER, BUT CERTAINLY NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION THAT THIS COULD AFFECT PARTS OF THE FA THIS EVENING, PARTICULARLY SW PARTS. ELSEWHERE, THE NORTHERN LOWER LAKE BREEZES WERE GOING STRONG WITH SOME SEVERE CONVECTION. THESE STORMS WERE ALSO DRIFTING SE AND COULD GET INTO THE SAGINAW VALLEY THIS EVENING AS WELL. AND THEN THERE IS THE POSSIBILITY THAT ANY OF THE BOUNDARIES IN PLACE ACROSS SE LOWER COULD LIGHT UP WHILE THE SUN IS STILL HIGH IN THE SKY. BOTTOM LINE IS CHANCE POPS ARE WARRANTED ACROSS ALL OF SE LOWER THIS EVENING. THINGS SHOULD BE WINDING DOWN AND DEBRIS CLOUDS THINNING IN THE OVERNIGHT HOURS WHICH WILL MAKE FOR ANOTHER PARTLY CLOUDY NIGHT WITH AREAS OF FOG AROUND. COULD EVEN BE SOME NOCTURNAL CONVECTIVE DEVELOPMENT WITH ANY LOCALIZED CONVERGENCE, BUT TRYING TO PICK ONE AREA OVER ANOTHER IS IMPOSSIBLE. ALMOST A REPEAT PERFORMANCE FOR MONDAY. AIRMASS WILL CERTAINLY BE SIMILAR WITH AFTERNOON HIGHS AROUND 90 AND DEWS IN THE LOWER TO MID 70S RESULTING IN A HIGH CAPE SCENARIO ONCE AGAIN. HOWEVER, 950MB WINDS ARE PROGGED TO BE STRONG ENOUGH TO PREVENT MUCH LAKE BREEZE PENETRATION, SO THOSE PROBABLY WONT BE AS BIG A PLAYER IN THE CONVECTIVE INITIATION GAME AS THEY HAVE BEEN THE LAST SEVERAL DAYS. A BROAD AREA OF UPPER DIVERGENCE SPREADS ACROSS THE LAKES REGION BY MONDAY AFTERNOON AND SOME SURFACE TROFFING LEADS TO BETTER LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE WITH THE COMBO PROBABLY RESULTING IN MORE SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS IN THE AFTERNOON. WHAT LOOKS TO BE A MORE ORGANIZED THREAT FOR STORMS MOVES IN LATE MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING AS ETA SHOWS A SHORT WAVE TROF AND STRONG VORT MAX ROLLING INTO SOUTHERN PORTIONS OF LOWER. DECENT LOW LEVEL CONVERGENCE/UPPER LEVEL DIVERGENCE COUPLING PROGGED TO OCCUR AHEAD OF THIS WAVE OVER SE LOWER DURING THE EVENING HOURS. INTUITION HERE WOULD SUGGEST AT LEAST LIKELY POPS, BUT WITH MODEL QPF/POP TRACK RECORD OF LATE, THINK IT PRUDENT TO CONTINUE TO PLAY POPS CONSERVATIVELY FOR AT LEAST ONE MORE MODEL RUN. SPC DAY 2 HAS REGION IN SLIGHT RISK, BUT WE ARE NOT CURRENTLY EXCITED ABOUT SEVERE CHANCES GIVEN HIGH WBZS AND LITTLE 0-6 KM SHEAR MONDAY EVENING. WILL FINALLY START TO FLUSH THE OPPRESSIVE AIRMASS ON TUESDAY AS A COLD FRONT SINKS SOUTH INTO THE REGION. NOT MUCH UPPER SUPPORT FOR PRECIP, BUT AIRMASS WILL REMAIN UNSTABLE AND WILL HAVE TO HANG ONTO A CHANCE FOR SHOWERS OR STORMS UNTIL THE FRONT CLEARS THE FA. WEAVER LITTLE CHANGE FROM YESTERDAY'S FEELINGS IN THE EXTENDED PERIOD AS GENERALLY MODELS ARE IN GOOD AGREEMENT ON PATTERN CHANGE EARLY-MID WEEK. THE STAGNANT...WARM-HOT SUMMER AIRMASS SHOULD BE TEMPORARILY...ANYWAY...HISTORY BY LATER TUE-WED. MODELS AGREE ON PUSHING THE PRE-FRONTAL TROF THRU SOUTHEAST LOWER MICHIGAN EARLY-MID TUE WITH MAIN COLD FRONT CATCHING UP WITH IT LATE TUE. THIS IS JUST A TAD FASTER THAN YESTERDAY AND REALLY THE ONLY NOTABLE CHANGE. OTHERWISE...STILL FEEL MOST OF THE SHOWERS/STORMS WILL FOCUS ALONG PRE-FRONTAL TROF ON TUE...ESPECIALLY WHEN ONE LOOKS AT THE STABLE AIR PREDICTED TO FOLLOW. STILL COULD BE A SHOWER AND/OR STORM TUE EVE AS THE MAIN FRONT LEAVES...BUT AM LESS PESSIMISTIC THAN YESTERDAY ABOUT WED AND WILL BACK OFF ON THE WORDING. IMPRESSIVE COLD HUDSON BAY LOW AND HIGH PRESSURE THAT MOVES ACROSS THE NORTHERN LAKES WILL PUSH IN SOME SEASONABLY COOL AND REFRESHING CANADIAN AIR. PATTERN HAS MORE CHARACTERISTICS OF A BACK-DOOR COLD FRONT AND SUBSEQUENT HIGH PRESSURE POSITIONING AND THUS...FRESH EAST TO NORTHEAST WINDS WILL DOMINATE. BEAUTIFUL HIGH WILL BE WITH US FOR AT LEAST A FEW DAYS (THU-SAT) AS IT MIGRATES EAST THRU ONTARIO INTO QUEBEC/NEW ENGLAND. FRONT STILL SLATED TO PUSH WELL SOUTH OF THE AREA AND WILL NOT DRIFT BACK NORTH UNTIL LATER SAT-SUN BUT KEPT SAT DRY. THE RISK OF SHOWERS/STORMS WILL BE ON THE INCREASE LATER SAT INTO SUN. DEEDLER .DTX...NONE.
The NCL Michigan radar (KAPX), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:00 UTC.
2 thunderstorm wind. Local standard time, as filed.
Trees and power lines were blown. The old Gransden building on M-30 lost part of its roof. A tree fell on a truck in Hope Township. A barn roof was partially blown off causing flat tires to a few motorists. One tree fell on a home.
Power Lines were blown down.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Michigan in 2001Every state in 2001This day in weather historyWarnings in Michigan, July 2001
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: 5259128, 5259129.