Severe Weather in Northern Michigan

Severe Weather in Northern Michigan on August 30 2018 04:50 AM (UTC).

A wave of thunderstorms with strong winds caused widespread power outages and scattered damage across western and northern Michigan. The National Weather Service reports that Tuesday night's storms had wind gusts reaching 50 m.p.h. and dumped up to 3 inches of rain in the Grand Rapids area. Storms damage northern Michigan, twister spotted near Hancock. Electric utilities reported at least 103,000 homes and businesses without power Wednesday morning, with the greatest number of outages spread across the state from around Ludington along Lake Michigan to the northern section of Saginaw Bay. Fallen trees damaged some homes and businesses and blocked some roads. Officials closed several miles of a state road in the Cadillac area for a time because of fallen trees and power lines. The National Weather Service also confirmed a funnel cloud near Hancock. "I was looking up at the sky above me, I could see the lower clouds were spinning the opposite direction of the ones above them," said Wayne Siira, 36, of Franklin Township, just outside Hancock. "You never see that kind thing up there." Siira stopped to photograph the cloud as it moved across the sky, but then a pelting rain convinced him to head for home. His home was spared, but he said tree limbs were down across the area and he had to chase his daughter's wagon down the street as the wind tried to steal it.