A Tornado in Detroit, Two Feet of Rain in Texas, and a Holiday Caught Between

On Detroit's east side Thursday evening, the sky did what it had not done in nearly three decades. A roof came off, a building came down, and one person was hurt where a tornado cut a 3.5-mile scar half a mile wide through city blocks. ^{2 4} It was confirmed as an EF-2 with peak winds of 115 mph, Detroit's first tornado since 1997, with no one killed. ^{2 4} Earlier that afternoon a brief EF-0 had touched down in Lincoln Park, and a separate tornado was confirmed in St. Clair County. ^{2 4}

That single neighborhood tells the small story. The large one is that the tornado arrived inside a rare multi-day outbreak colliding with one of the busiest travel days of the year. ^{11 1} More than 50 million people sat in Thursday's severe-weather risk zone, a corridor running from the Great Lakes through the Ohio Valley and into the Mid-Atlantic. ^{11 5} The band covered Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Washington. ¹¹

Thursday evening the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh issued tornado warnings for central and southeastern Westmoreland County and northeastern Fayette County, including Latrobe, Murrysville, Delmont, Mount Pleasant and Ligonier. ^{11 5} Gusts around Pittsburgh were measured up to 75 mph. ¹¹ Flash flooding hit northern Ohio, where families were rescued by boat, and Springfield, Ohio, where crews went door to door. ^{14 20} Buffalo set a daily rain record above three inches, stranding cars in flooded streets. ^{14 20}

Texas was hit harder by water. The remnants of Tropical Storm Edouard came ashore September 1 near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, then stalled over Southeast Texas. ¹⁵ A gauge at Thicket in Hardin County recorded 24.36 inches — just over two feet. ^{12 15} Hardin County saw 18 to 20 inches over two days, against a normal September total of 5.51 inches. ¹⁵ Flash flood emergencies stretched across Hardin, Tyler and Polk counties in the Kountze-Warren-Thicket corridor, and authorities rescued dozens of people. ¹⁵

By the time the remnants dissipated September 3, multi-day totals of 15 to 25 inches had fallen, and river flooding was forecast to linger for days afterward. ^{15 12} It was the kind of rain that does not drain by morning, and in the pine country of Southeast Texas it turned creeks into rivers long after the clouds thinned.

By Friday morning more than 500,000 customers were without power across a 470-mile swath from Michigan to Delaware, concentrated in Metro Detroit and in southeastern Pennsylvania around Pittsburgh. ^{10 6} DTE Energy, which serves Metro Detroit, said more than 450,000 of its customers were affected across three consecutive storm days — roughly 100,000 Wednesday, about 200,000 Thursday and more on Friday. ^{3 10} The response involved hundreds of broken poles and a 4,000-person effort that included 1,900 mutual-aid lineworkers. ³ The utility pledged to restore all remaining storm-related outages by the end of Sunday. ³

By Sunday afternoon, 33,238 DTE customers were still in the dark, with about 98 percent of the utility's 2.18 million customers restored. ³ For the families who spent the holiday weekend listening for the hum of a transformer, the pledge of Sunday restoration was the only timetable that mattered.

The storm hit precisely as travel peaked. The TSA screened more than 17 million people from Thursday through the following Wednesday, with roughly 2.8 million on Friday alone, and the FAA logged more than 280,000 flights over the same stretch. ^{19 13} Flight delays topped 7,000 nationwide, and one compilation for September 3-4 put the figure at 6,750 delays and 283 cancellations. ^{8 9} Thursday brought an average ground delay near two hours at JFK and roughly 45 minutes at LaGuardia. ^{8 9}

Friday brought FAA ground stops at Dulles, LaGuardia, Reagan National, Baltimore-Washington and Pittsburgh, with ground delays at Boston, LaGuardia and Reagan National, amid a disruption that hit American's network hardest. ^{8 9} Dallas reported a 40 percent flight-delay rate. ¹⁹ Chicago O'Hare handled 1.41 million holiday passengers, up about 6 percent from the year before. ¹⁹

Road crossings reached up to 4.2 million vehicles. ¹⁹ What was plainly a record was the gas: holiday prices ran about $4.03 to $4.15 a gallon nationally, against $3.19 at the previous Labor Day. ¹⁹ Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield described “significant damage” in the city, including a destroyed building and a torn-off roof. ⁴

A second hazard was building to the south and west. A heat dome sat over the central and southern Plains and the Mississippi Valley, keeping nearly 45 million people under heat advisories or extreme heat warnings through Labor Day, including St. Louis. ^{20 18} Heat indices of 105 or higher were seen in Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri and Mississippi. ²⁰ Kansas City was among the hardest hit, with an extreme heat warning lasting through Saturday evening metro-wide and through Tuesday south of a line from St. Joseph to Boonville. ^{20 12}

Highs ran in the mid-90s to around 100 with heat indices near 106, in a city whose normal early-September highs are in the low 80s. ²⁰ The National Weather Service flagged the possibility of 12 consecutive days at or above 95 degrees — the longest such stretch since July 2012. ^{12 20}

The storms largely cleared north and east in time for the holiday. Metro Detroit and much of the Midwest saw their last serious round Friday, then dried out, with Sunday and Labor Day mostly dry and sunny. ^{5 3} The broader pattern shifted south into the Carolinas by Saturday afternoon, leaving a slight severe risk Sunday in parts of Georgia, the Carolinas and Montana. ^{5 14} The Plains heat dome was not expected to break, with the Kansas City warning running through Tuesday and river flooding in Texas lingering for days after the rain stopped. ^{20 15}