Metro Detroit weather: Flood watch continues with waves of rain expected

SE Michigan under flood watch through Thursday

DETROIT – Batches of rain increased on schedule late Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday evening, and it really came down hard in some areas.

I personally measured a whopping 1.86 inches of rain between 5-6 p.m. at my house in Farmington Hills -- that amount of rain in only one hour is statistically considered a once every 10-to-25-year rain event. Given how much more frequently this type of event is occurring due to our warming climate, I think they’ll need to reevaluate these statistics.

Other rainfall reports I’ve seen thus far include 1.34 inches in Bloomfield Hills, 2.40 inches in Macomb Township, 1.40 inches in Garden City, 2.44 inches in Armada and 1.02 inches in Roseville. It should be noted that these reports all came in during the middle of the night, and are undoubtedly higher now.

Waves of rain will continue throughout Wednesday, and then transition to showers Wednesday night into Thursday. I expect another 1-2 inches of rain during this period, so the flood watch issued for all of Southeast Michigan continues.

A flood warning has also been issued for the Clinton River near Clinton Township. See the latest weather alerts here.

Temperatures have fallen into the mid-to-upper 50s, and will remain steady through the day, only dropping slightly Wednesday night into the low 50s.

The other concern today is wind. North winds will increase to 15-25 mph, with gusts up to 35 mph possible. Thus, wind chills will be in the 40s by the afternoon. Yes, I just wrote wind chill.

Today’s sunset is at 7:30 p.m.

Rain diminishes Thursday

Showers are likely on Thursday, but not the waves of continuous rain we’ll see Wednesday. Highs will once again remain in the mid-to-upper 50s.

Rain will diminish Thursday night, with lows in the upper 40s to near 50 degrees.

Friday will start mostly cloudy, but the clouds will quickly move out and we’ll become mostly sunny as the day progresses. We’ll warm back up into the upper 60s to near 70 degrees, so that ends the work week on a happy note!

Clouds will increase Friday night, and showers will develop sometime after midnight as a cold front approaches. Lows will be in the mid 50s.

Weekend Outlook

Friday night showers should continue into Saturday morning, but the computer models disagree by a few hours on the timing of the cold front’s passage, which will end the rain. At this point, I’m expecting the rain to end around lunchtime (an hour or two earlier west and later east), with all of us seeing some sun eventually develop during the afternoon. Saturday highs will be in the upper 60s.

Sunday will be mostly sunny, with highs in the upper 60s to near 70 degrees -- a nice back half of the weekend!

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