(WWJ) — Snow and ice used to be the norm this time of year. But what was a very mild February culminated in record-breaking temperatures, thunderstorms and tornadoes in Michigan on Tuesday.
While that was quickly followed by more seasonable temps — and even snowflakes in some areas — it was pretty rare for February in Metro Detroit.
This “weather whiplash” got WWJ’s Zach Clark wondering whether what we call “winter” is even “winter” at all anymore. He hears from meteorologists and climate change experts on a new Daily J podcast.
An EF-1 tornado touched down around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday in Calhoun County, while an EF-2 struck Genesee County’s Grand Blanc a little after 1 a.m.
National Weather Service forecaster Steve Considine says it’s “fairly unusual” for Michigan to see such weather this time of year.
“Even though the calendar is late February, we have a very springlike airmass in place,” Considine said. And that’s what fueled Wednesday’s wild storms, he said.
Melissa Widhalm, the associate director of the Midwestern Regional Climate Center at Purdue University, said while climate change has made all seasons more volatile, winter takes the cake.
She says long-term data observations and high-powered computer models show that “historically speaking, over the last 100-150 years, winter is a season that is changing more rapidly than any of the other seasons, particularly in the Great Lakes region.”
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