Storm Team 8 Forecast, noon, 072026

[00:00:00]Always tracking, always alerting. This is Storm Team 8 with Meteorologist Sarah Flynn.

[00:00:07]>> And good afternoon, West Michigan. We're tracking really two major things that will be changing as we build throughout the afternoon. The first of which has been something we've been dealing with since about last Thursday, the wildfire smoke. Still lingering across West Michigan at this time, but we are expecting just a little bit more improvement as we build throughout the afternoon. Although, that smoke still expected to make a return as we move into Tuesday. So, not fully really losing that at this point. Here's a look across the region right now. Looks cloudy. It is the wildfire smoke.

[00:00:38]Current temperatures are struggling because of it. We've been notably cooler as the smoke continues to loom across the region. We're at 75° right now in Muskegon, 78 here in Grand Rapids. Now, it is a step in the right direction.

[00:00:52]Thursday and Friday last week, we were talking hazardous air quality, which is a six out of six on our scale. Right now, we're actually in that level three.

[00:01:00]It's unhealthy for sensitive groups, so it still may be impacting you just a little bit. But as those winds continue to come from the west-southwest, it is pulling in slightly better air quality.

[00:01:10]And that's something that we're hopeful to see as we go throughout the afternoon. So, that'll be our window to really start to see some of that improvement. We do see those winds shift again though as we build into Tuesday behind tonight's system. And it does pull in another layer of wildfire smoke.

[00:01:25]We are expecting air quality to decline by late tomorrow morning, but probably not nearly as bad as we were last week.

[00:01:32]That was hopefully the peak of what we're working with. We also had some showers over the weekend in Canada that helped mitigate some of those fires. So, we're hopeful that perhaps the middle of the week will finally bring some clearer conditions for us. Now, I mentioned those storms. That's the secondary thing we've been tracking. Those will arrive very late tonight. So, we're thinking after 8:00 and some of which could wind up being severe. Right now, the Storm Prediction Center are that we could see some gusty winds with that cold front.

[00:02:00]So, here's what satellite and radar looks like. That rain still well off to our west. We might get clipped by just a few scattered showers this afternoon, but no thunderstorm threat at that point. The thunderstorm threat really comes between 8:00 and 1:00 in the morning. So, it's a true overnight system. Temperatures will drop down into those upper 60s, and tomorrow should be a mostly dry day. We could have a few sprinkles lingering, especially in the morning and again in the afternoon.

[00:02:24]You'll see that with our Futurecast. Few showers possible within the next couple of hours, but better chance for those storms to be on the lakeshore's doorstep right around 10:00 tonight. They sweep through rather quickly. I actually think most of us will be in the clear by about midnight, maybe 1:00 in the morning at the latest. And then a few sprinkles may linger into Tuesday, but it won't be a ton of rain by any means. We'll see those winds be pretty gusty though from the northwest, favoring some of that wildfire smoke making a return. So, when does the primary threat tonight? Pretty low for tornadoes and hail. And then behind the system, it's actually really lovely. I'm hoping the smoke clears because we should have temperatures finally below average for a change. You can maybe really open those windows, mid to upper 70s. We do warm back to the mid to upper 80s by the weekend, and the next chance for rain we'll track will be sometime early next week.