Gusty winds caused havoc in Macomb County as a line of thunderstorms approached, resulting in several downed power lines on Thursday afternoon. DTE Energy’s online outage map showed that approximately 1,300 utility customers in Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties were already without power prior to the storm’s arrival, with some not expected to have electricity restored until Friday.
As the storms continued to sweep through the county, more outages were anticipated. The National Weather Service reported that winds were coming from the southwest at 20 mph, with gusts reaching up to 35 mph, while temperatures soared to 92 degrees.
The weather service issued a warning stating, “Damaging wind gusts exceeding 60 mph will pose the primary threat, with large hail and the possibility of an isolated tornado as secondary threats. Severe weather conditions are forecasted to occur between 4 p.m. and 10 p.m.” Additional scattered showers and thunderstorms were also predicted for Thursday night.