Michigan's history-making summer: One of the wettest ever
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (FOX 2) - Last week was Aug. 31, the end of what's called meteorological summer. And what a summer it has been. True, real summer doesn't end for another three weeks but the end of August is largely seen as the final farewell to the summer months. If you thought this summer was particularly wet – you're 100% right.
The summer of 2023 will go down as a history-making summer. For most of the country and world, that's due to extreme heat. Here in Michigan, it was because of another kind of weather: record-setting rainfall.
If you've been outside recently – maybe on your mower or at a park – you may notice that the ground is a bit squishy. That's due to all of the rain we've received over the past few months.
In a typical summer, we get about 10 inches of rain spread out over June, July, and August. This year, we got 50% more than normal as our totals are over 15 inches.
Some spots got even more – like Carleton, which got 7 inches in one day.
Belleville hit by EF-1 tornado Thursday, as residents deal with the damage
This summer was the 10th wettest of all time.
Along with rain was another aspect of severe weather: thunder. Believe it or not, thunder has been more frequent this year. This summer, there were 108 severe thunderstorm warnings and 15 tornado warnings, compared to only 52 and 3 last year.
The only other summer that we can compare to was back in 2021, which was the 7th wettest summer on record.
To say it another way, in the past 150 years it's only rained more than 9 other times.
It's time to dry out.