Weathering West Michigan: Storms That Shaped Us

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — West Michigan has long seen destructive weather, but there are three events over the past 50 years that stand out: the blizzard of 1978, the Kalamazoo tornado of 1980 and the derecho of 1998.

Storm Team 8 is revisiting those three events through the memories of those who covered them.

BLIZZARD OF 1978

There’s a snowstorm that’s reputation lies above the rest: the blizzard of 1978.

Heavy snow began to fall in West Michigan on Jan. 26. Over the next 48 hours, nearly 2 feet of snow would fall, with most of the area receiving well over a foot. In Grand Rapids, there were reports between 16 and 20 inches.

“I remember the forecasts and talking about it and also being snowed in for four days at my house,” former WOOD TV8 weather anchor Andy Rent recalled the storm’s lead-up. “I lived way on the West Side, and nobody predicted that it would be, what, 19, 20 inches of snow and how long it would last. Because typically a storm would be 12 to 24 hours, maybe, and this was a 48-hour event. And it just kept snowing and it kept piling up.”

From a meteorological perspective, the storm was significant. Atmospheric pressure dropped to 950 millibars, a level more often seen in a hurricane than a snowstorm. The lower the pressure, the more intense a storm. For reference, the average low pressure is usually about 1,000 mb and the Christmas blizzard of 2022 carried a low pressure of 972 mb; that storm dumped 22 inches of snow in some places. The 1978 figure set a record for lowest pressure associated with a nontropical storm over North America.

“There were two separate storm systems,” Storm Team 8 Chief Meteorologist Emeritus Bill Steffen explained. “There was one that was going across the southern United States and coming up into the northeast. The second one was coming down from the northwest and they were timed just perfectly. Everything came together.”

By late afternoon on Jan. 26, most of West Michigan was under a state of emergency. News 8 crews kept working to get the stories out into the community.

“We were using four-wheel drive vehicles and so we were able to get out in it and do some work, but yet from my perspective, it was a lot like other storms,” Target 8 investigator Henry Erb said. “It’s Michigan, it’s winter — and it was miserable.”

The aftermath left behind impassible roads with some schools and businesses closed for several weeks. The blizzard is considered to be one of the strongest — if not the strongest outright — in West Michigan history.

KALAMAZOO TORNADO OF 1980

The most significant tornado to hit West Michigan in the past 50 years struck the heart of Kalamazoo.

On May 13, 1980, an F3 tornado swept through metro Kalamazoo. The tornado was on the ground for a total of 25 minutes, traveling 11 miles.

Former News 8 anchor Emily Linnert, who grew up in the Kalamazoo area, still remembers that day, though she was quite young when it happened.

“My mom had taken me to her friend’s house and she had a number of little kids my age and we were all playing,” she said. “But what I remember about that day the most is the adults and how their whole demeanor changed when the storms was coming and when the storm had blown through.”

The National Weather Service out a tornado watch and warning with an approximately 10-minute lead time. Regardless, five people were killed and 79 injured, most of them in downtown Kalamazoo.

“The entire west wall of Gilmore’s department store caved in where you see the individual floors,” Steffen remembered.

The damage in Kalamazoo County was estimated at $50 million. Adjusted for inflation, that’s nearly $190 million in today’s dollars.

“I hope that even at that young age, it gave me some empathy in covering news, when people go through tragedies, when people go through loss,” Linnert said. “I can remember how scary that day was, how unsettling it was and I hope that’s made me a more empathetic reporter to understand the things that people can go through in West Michigan.”

DERECHO OF 1998

May 31, 1998 was the day many in West Michigan learned what a derecho was.

A derecho is a line of thunderstorms with a path of at least 240 miles carrying strong winds or damage reports along the majority of its path. On the morning of the 31st, an extraordinarily powerful derecho swept through West Michigan, leaving behind widespread destruction.

“When you look at the radar imagery from that night, it was like somebody cracked a whip through the atmosphere,” News 8 anchor Brian Sterling said.

Peak winds of 130 mph were estimated in Grand Haven, Spring Lake and Walker, with widespread gusts of 80 mph to 100 mph observed elsewhere.

“Above 90 mph, you start to get that exponential increase in force. You start to see almost all the trees go down once you get above 90 to 95 mph,” National Weather Service meteorologist Ernie Ostuno explained.

With the damage widespread across West Michigan, WOOD TV8 employees were called in for breaking coverage.

“The storm came through and it got blustery for a while and it was nothing. And then the phone rang,” Joe LaFurgey, then a reporter and now the assistant news director, recalled.

“Got down to Riverside Park and every other tree, big old-growth trees (were) knocked down,” Sterling said. “Looked like a movie set, looked like something had roared through there and just indiscriminately knocked these huge trees down. And then I found I couldn’t even get down Monroe because there was so much debris blocking the road.”

“We used to go out to Grand Haven quite often and that was where some of the worst damage occurred,” Storm Team 8 meteorologist Matt Kirkwood said. “Straight-line wind damage that ended up estimated at 130 mph, which if you think about it on the EF tornado scale is a high-end EF2 tornado.”

The NWS indicated that the derecho was the strongest thunderstorm complex in the entire world in 1998. The powerful winds caused 860,000 customers in Michigan to lose power, and it took some communities over a week to see service restored. Several school districts ended the school year early due to the storms.

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