Flood Collection: Great Michigan Flood 2026

Great Michigan Flood of 2026

In April of 2026 there was a historical flood in Michigan and Wisconsin affecting large portions of the states.

This article in the Conversation was written as the floods were going on and describe the role of a warming world and ongoing threats to dams and infrastructure.

Heavy rain on snow is testing aging dams across Michigan and Wisconsin – this is the future in a warming world

• Michigan and parts of Wisconsin are in the midst of a historic flooding event in spring 2026. Days of heavy rainfall on top of snow have sent lakes and rivers over their banks and threatened several dams in both states, forcing people to evacuate homes downstream.
• Michigan is often touted as a climate haven because it is relatively cool and has plenty of water. The state is not, however, immune to the amped-up weather of a warming climate. Environmental security in the future requires improved and more adaptive infrastructure.

This Climate Blue article was written after the floods and discusses the definitive markers of a warming world on the floods. It, also, shows that despite press coverage, the winter of 2026 was not extraordinarily cold.

A flood of warnings about warming

• In the middle of April of 2026, large portions of Michigan were under a state of emergency that would last many days. In the northern parts of the Lower Peninsula, there was simply more water than the creeks, rivers, and lakes could hold. Dams and other water management infrastructure were overwhelmed.
• With the markers of global warming already present, there is an important lesson for the future. We call these storms historic, extreme. That is only true compared to the past. We are just starting to experience, sample, and measure the warming climate. A more robust framing is that we are sampling something typical of the future. This informs what we need to know, to design, and to build so that the consequences are less severe.

I frame all of this in the context of

Winter is Getting Warmer: Warming Winter Syndrome

Here is, without much discussion,

Background & Analysis: 2026 Michigan Winter Temperature

Table of interviews that I have done on the 2026 Michigan Great Flood