Severe thunderstorms leave 105,000 without power across Michigan

Severe thunderstorms have left more than 105,000 customers across Michigan without power, the National Weather Service said.

More rain is possible tonight, they said.

DTE Energy’s website showed more than 25,000 outages as of 8 p.m. with large clusters near Dexter, Livonia, Milford, Sterling Heights, Lake Orion, Birch Run, Lapeer and Frankenmuth.

Consumers Energy reported more than 80,000 customers without power. Most were located near Kalamazoo, Battle Creek, and Portage in the southwestern state, or between Lansing and Flint.

The outages followed high winds and rain as rush-hour storms swept across much of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula, prompting the National Weather Service to issue many severe thunderstorm warnings.

Wind gusts in excess of 50 mph were recorded across the state, including in Flint, Kalamazoo and Allegan; More than an inch of rain fell near Lansing, according to the Weather Service website.

Trees and power lines were down in Shiawassee and Lapeer counties. Tree branches also fell near roads in Berrien and Oakland counties, the weather service said.

Up to 1-3 inches of rain doused parts of Metro Detroit, the Weather Service reported. This triggered flood warnings for Livingston, Oakland and Macomb.

Southeast Michigan was under a heavy thunderstorm watch through 9 p.m. A watch differs from a warning in that “the exact time and location of the storm development is still uncertain,” according to the weather service.

The heaviest rain fell quickly in the east, but showers were expected to continue into midnight, said Alex Manion, a meteorologist with the Weather Service Station in White Lake Township.

Those are expected to end early Thursday when an approaching cold front triggers more storm chances, he said.

However, he added “it will be more dispersed” and not as severe as on Wednesday.

Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Washtenaw counties faced severe thunderstorm warnings earlier Wednesday night.

The turbulence followed heat and humidity that seared Metro Detroit for much of Wednesday.

Detroit Metro Airport in Romulus hit a high of 95, 12 degrees above the average for the date and close to a record of 96 last set in 1988, weather service data shows.

Temperatures are expected to be in the low 80s on Thursday.

Friday could be a little warmer with highs in the mid 80’s and a low risk of storms.

The heat is returning for the weekend, and the weather service predicts mercury will rise into the 90s on Saturday and Sunday with sunny skies.