Up top you can see the Severe Weather Reports Map for Sunday (2/26). We had 141 severe weather reports. There were nine reported tornadoes, seven in Oklahoma and two more near Liberal and Ingalls, Kansas.

How’s that for a severe weather report – a 114 mph gust! There were dozens of reports of wind gusts from 60-90 mph. Semis and even cars were blown off highways. The strong wind gusts caused a dust storm ahead of the thunderstorms that reduced the visibility to zero. Hail up to golfball-size accompanied the storms

SPC had forecast: “Significant damaging wind and a few tornadoes are expected from the eastern Texas Panhandle during the late afternoon across much Oklahoma through the evening, with a wind threat persisting into Missouri overnight. Widespread wind damage is possible.”

That forecast was right on.

This was the Severe Weather Outlook Map for today (2/27). . There was a Slight Risk Area over much of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio extending down into Kentucky. The Marginal Risk (dark green on the map) came up to the southern tip of Lake Michigan.

Today (Monday) we’ve had at this point 7 reports of tornadoes, including a tornado near Champaign IL that crossed I-57. Two other tornadoes touched down in the far western suburbs of Chicago at Shorewood and Warrenville.

There were 28 reports of wind damage on Monday and 10 reports of large hail, including hail the size of golfballs at Mt. Carmel IN.

We did have several random lightning strikes in West Michigan. There was one flash of lightning amid some heavy snowfall near Big Rapids.

Note, there was also a chance of a non-severe thunderstorm along the West Coast from southwest Washington down to central California.

***********************************************************************************************

There was one tornado in the U.S. on Thursday. That was southeast of Whittier, California: “KTLA received multiple calls from the public about downed trees in the area. Radar and environmental conditions indicated the damage was mostly likely from a non-supercell tornado.”

After a very active January for tornadoes (168 preliminary count with 8 fatalities), we’ve had only 27 reported tornadoes so far this February.

CLIMATE NOTES: So far this month of February has averaged 4.9 degrees warmer than average – (warmest 54° and lowest 5°). We’ve had 5.7″ of snow and 3.02″ of precipitation . That’s 1.21″ above average for February. It’s been a windy month, with an average wind speed of 12.3 mph and a peak gust of 56 mph on the 15th. The relatively warm temperatures and the fairly strong wind have caused lakes to have thin ice or even no ice at times this winter.

Here’s Michigan weather observations, a Michigan surface weather map, any severe thunderstorm or tornado watches from SPC, any meso-discussions in effect.

Lower Michigan radar