Special Marine Warning Issued for Lake Michigan Near Michigan City
This alert is no longer in effect.
NOAA issued it on July 12, 2026, 6 weeks ago. Warnings of this kind stay in effect for hours to a few days, so this page is a historical record of what was issued, not a current warning. For conditions where you are right now, check weather.gov (US), weather.gc.ca (Canada), the Met Office (UK), or the Bureau of Meteorology (Australia).
Areazine synthesizes this NWS weather alert directly from NOAA's official public data feed. See our methodology for full source attribution and refresh cadence.
NWS Northern Indiana issued a Special Marine Warning for Lake Michigan waters near Michigan City IN and New Buffalo MI until 9:30 PM EDT due to a severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts.
Read this weather record in 30 seconds
- Record type
- Special Marine Warning
- Affected area
- Southwestern Lake Michigan
- Issued
- July 12, 2026
- Issuing authority
- NWS Northern Indiana
Marine notices apply to named waters or shoreline zones. They may not describe conditions on land, even when the nearest place name is the same.
Record status: historical. It was issued 6 weeks ago; use the issuing agency's live warning service for current conditions in Southwestern Lake Michigan.
Alert Details
Special Marine Warning issued by NWS Northern Indiana. Effective from 8:48 PM EDT June 11, 2026 until 9:30 PM EDT June 11, 2026. Severity: Severe. Urgency: Immediate. Certainty: Likely.
Affected Areas
Lake Michigan Michigan City IN to St. Joseph MI 5 NM offshore to mid-line of lake; Michigan City IN to New Buffalo MI; New Buffalo MI to St Joseph MI. Locations impacted include New Buffalo and Michigan City.
What You Should Do
Seek safe harbor immediately. Thunderstorms can produce sudden waterspouts. Waterspouts can easily overturn boats and create locally hazardous seas. If caught on the open water stay below deck if possible, keep away from ungrounded metal objects. Frequent lightning is occurring with this storm.
Expected Conditions
At 8:47 PM EDT, a severe thunderstorm capable of producing waterspouts was located near Michigan City, moving northeast at 40 knots. Hazards include waterspouts, wind gusts in excess of 50 knots, and small hail.
Timeline
Alert in effect from 8:48 PM EDT to 9:30 PM EDT on June 11, 2026. A Tornado Watch remains in effect until 2:00 AM EDT for northwestern Indiana, southwestern Michigan, and the adjacent waters of Lake Michigan.
Original source: NOAA Official Notice ↗
Related Weather Alerts
All Weather Alerts →Nationwide notices with similar length or severity timing 8
Two Areazine-derived peer sets for this NWS weather alert: nearest notices by body length and by same severity near the same agency date. Peers come from other categories so they are not the same-feed Related list above.
Similar body length
Nearest notices by article body length (1,207 characters here).
Similar severity timing
Same severity (high) notices issued closest in time to July 12, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about this NWS weather alert.