Severe thunderstorms produced damaging wind gusts and large hail across two separate regions of the country Sunday, prompting nine active Severe Thunderstorm Warnings from the National Weather Service spanning Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The most intense activity hit Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where the National Weather Service office in Marquette tracked a severe thunderstorm near Bergland, 8 miles southeast of Porcupine Mountains State Park, moving southeast at 55 mph. The storm carried 60 mph wind gusts and hail the size of half dollars, conditions the Weather Service said would cause hail damage to vehicles and wind damage to roofs, siding and trees, with Porcupine Mountains State Park directly in its path.
A second storm was tracked 7 miles north of Wakefield, or 12 miles northeast of Ironwood, moving east at 40 mph, prompting a warning for central Gogebic County and southwestern Ontonagon County. That warning has since weakened below severe limits and was allowed to expire, though the Weather Service cautioned that gusty winds remained possible. Warnings also covered Van Buren County in southwest Michigan.
The severe weather extended onto Lake Superior itself, where marine warnings covered a long stretch of open water from Grand Portage, Minnesota, to the Upper Entrance of the Portage Canal in Michigan, including the Apostle Islands and waters off Bayfield, Douglas, Iron, Price, Sawyer, Washburn and Ashland counties in Wisconsin, as well as Cook, Lake and St. Louis counties in Minnesota.
Far to the south, a separate cluster of severe storms triggered warnings in Alabama’s Shelby and Talladega counties, underscoring how the same atmospheric setup produced dangerous storms in two distinct parts of the country simultaneously.
For all active warnings, the National Weather Service is urging residents to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of their building until the threat passes. Warnings remain in effect through late morning in the Upper Michigan warning areas, with the Weather Service continuing to monitor radar for additional cell development across the Great Lakes and Deep South through the day.
Residents in the warned counties across Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin should keep monitoring local alerts, as fast-moving storms like the ones tracked Sunday morning can develop and intensify with little advance notice.