1 lightning, as filed by the National Weather Service.
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.
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 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 Aug 15, 2:30 PM EST, 30 minutes earlier.
SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI 330 PM EDT FRI AUG 15 2003 IN THE SHORT RANGE... THUNDERSTORMS EMBEDDED IN HIGHER CAPE/THETAE AXIS ACROSS SOUTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN ARE LIKELY TO CONTINUE THROUGH THE LATE AFTERNOON HOURS AND INTO THE EARLY EVENING. HOWEVER... GIVEN THAT THESE STORMS ARE LARGELY THERMODYNAMICALLY DRIVEN WOULD EXPECT TO SEE A FAIRLY RAPID DIURNAL DECREASE THIS EVENING. AGAIN... HIGH PWS...CAPE VALUES IN EXCESS OF 2KJ/KG... AND WEAK WIND FIELDS ALOFT SUPPORT LOCALLY HEAVY DOWNPOURS DURING THIS TIME. NEXT CONCERN IS MAJOR SHORTWAVE COMING OVER THE TOP OF THE RIDGE TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. THERE IS A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF INSTABILITY IN PLACE ALL ACROSS THE LOWER GREAT LAKES IN ADVANCE OF THE FRONT... AND THE DEGREE OF COVERAGE AND INTENSITY OF CONVECTION FOR SOUTHERN LOWER DEPENDS LARGELY ON TIMING. IN SHORT... MODEL TRENDS HAVE BEEN TO SPEED UP THE FRONTAL PASSAGE FOR SOUTHERN LOWER MICHIGAN TOMORROW. THIS SEEMS ENTIRELY LIKELY GIVEN THE ORIENTATION OF THE UPPER FLOW TO THE SURFACE BOUNDARY. IN FACT... ETA MID TROPOSPHERIC WINDS OF 50 KTS OVER THE BOUNDARY WILL HELP IN THAT REGARD. BOTH ETA AND GFS ESSENTIALLY HAVE THE FRONT OUT OF THE STATE BY 18Z... MINIMIZING OUR CHANCES OF BOTH THUNDERSTORMS AND SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS. PLUS STORMS THAT DO DEVELOP SATURDAY AFTERNOON WILL HAVE A STRONG AND FAST SOUTHERLY COMPONENT TO THEM AND LIKELY QUICKLY EXIT THE AREA. IN ESSENCE... WILL KEEP CHANCE POPS GOING TOMORROW MOST AREAS (MORNING NORTH... AFTERNOON SOUTH)... BUT KEEP THEM ON THE LIGHT SIDE. MODEL TEMPS PRETTY MUCH ACCEPTED ALTHOUGH HAVE JACKED DEW POINTS UP TONIGHT AND SATURDAY JUST A TAD. FOR MEDIUM RANGE FORECAST... HAVE OPTED TO PUT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS INTO LATE WEDNESDAY/WEDNESDAY NIGHT TIME FRAME IN RESPONSE TO NEXT WAVE AS FORECAST BY LATEST GFS. OTHERWISE NO SERIOUS CHANGES TO THE GOING FORECAST EXCEPT TO BUMP TEMPS A TAD. .DTX...NONE. EXPERIMENTAL GRAPHICAL FORECASTS ARE AVAILABLE ONLINE AT HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/DTX (ALL LOWER CASE)
MIZ047>049-053>055-060>063-068>070-075-076-082-083-161200- HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DETROIT/PONTIAC MI 530 AM EDT FRI AUG 15 2003 THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR SOUTHEAST LOWER MICHIGAN .DAY ONE...TODAY AND TONIGHT THERE IS A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ANYTIME TODAY ACROSS ALL OF SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN. HOWEVER...THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO BECOME SEVERE. ANY THUNDERSTORM THAT FORMS TODAY WILL MOVE TO THE EAST OR SOUTHEAST AROUND 15 MPH. THE STORMS WILL HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE WIND GUSTS UP TO 45 MPH AND PEA SIZE HAIL. THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE SLOWLY...SO LOCALLY HEAVY RAINFALL WILL BE POSSIBLE. THE THUNDERSTORMS WILL END BY THIS EVENING AS A WEAK TROUGH OF LOW PRESSURE MOVES EAST OF MICHIGAN. .DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...FRIDAY THROUGH THURSDAY THERE IS A CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ON SATURDAY. SOME OF THESE STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE WITH LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS. THE THREAT OF THUNDERSTORMS AND SEVERE WEATHER WILL END AS A COLD FRONT MOVES SOUTH OF MICHIGAN BY LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON. THERE IS YET ANOTHER CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS SOUTHEAST MICHIGAN ON TUESDAY. .SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT... SPOTTER ACTIVATION IS NOT EXPECTED. && STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...OR LOCAL MEDIA OUTLETS...FOR THE LATEST FORECAST INFORMATION FROM THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE. YOU CAN ALSO OBTAIN THE LATEST FORECAST ON THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE WEB SITE HTTP://WWW.CRH.NOAA.GOV/DTX/ (ALL LOWER CASE) RBP
The Detroit radar (KDTX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 20:01 UTC.
1 lightning. Local standard time, as filed.
Lightning was the suspected cause of a fire that destroyed a garage and damaged a home on Quaker Road.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in Michigan in 2003Every state in 2003This day in weather historyWarnings in Michigan, August 2003
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: 5368355.