The calm after the storm: U-M research confronts extreme weather—and aims to curb its effects

By Melina Glusac | Read time: 5 minutes

Key takeaways

• Widespread increases in precipitation cause flooding, fluctuating water levels in the Great Lakes, according to U‑M researchers.
• Extreme heat leads to health challenges for Michigan’s older population, which preventative measures—like weatherization—could help mitigate.
• Donor support fuels regional partnerships, hands-on learning opportunities for U‑M students, and forward-thinking research.

When it rains, it pours. And then it floods.

That seems to be a pattern lately—in Michigan and across the country. Weather has turned extreme, and researchers at the University of Michigan are working on mitigating the effects of these extremes. 

The forecast is severe: Winters are expected to be warmer and wetter on average, according to a study from the U‑M School for Environment and Sustainability. Drew Gronewold, associate professor at SEAS, said the total amount of precipitation in Michigan has been going up steadily for decades. 

Rainfall events are also intensifying. And the heat? Its increase is felt, from living rooms in Detroit to snowcaps in Antarctica. 

What’s going on?

In April 2026, for the first time in recorded history, the entire state of Michigan was under a flood watch. This past spring was also the wettest on record for the upper part of lower Michigan.

“We're now seeing both of these time and space scales colliding,” said Gronewold, who is also an associate professor at the College of Engineering and College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. “Extraordinary amount of precipitation coming into the region, very wet soil conditions—and it's not just in one city or one county.”

As a result, the water levels of the Great Lakes have been fluctuating by three to six feet for the past several years. Claire Pettersen, assistant professor of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering and member of the U‑M Biological Station Advisory Board, researches snowfall and winter storms, both of which contribute to the fluctuation.

“We basically have water returning to the Great Lakes via snowfall and via our winter snowpack,” Pettersen said. “Depending on what happens throughout a season, that affects lakes, which affects our economy, our recreation.”

It also affects our health. Carina Gronlund, environmental epidemiologist and associate professor at the School of Public Health and Institute for Social Research, said emergency room visits increase during extreme weather events. Also, according to Gronlund, in 2025, a majority of Detroiters reported basement flooding from heavy precipitation in the previous year—and it wasn’t just a puddle.

 
“We had people reporting more than three feet of water in their basement,” Gronlund said. “It makes that space unlivable; it eliminates it as a place you can go during an extreme event.”

Turmoil indoors and outdoors affects certain demographics more than others, too. Older adults are more likely to have preexisting health conditions, like heart or kidney problems, that make them more vulnerable to heat. Many medications can also interfere with a body’s ability to thermoregulate.

“I think we all recognize that although there’s value in cataloging these health effects,” Gronlund said, “we also need to be working on what to do about it.”

What is the University of Michigan doing to help?

Across the region and beyond, philanthropy is helping U‑M researchers work with people, for people.

Glen Daigger, professor of civil and environmental engineering, is also a principal investigator at the Michigan Center for Freshwater Innovation. A partnership between U‑M, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University, the center puts research into practice while “sustaining long-term relationships with people,” Daigger said.

In 2023, Daigger and a team of engineers received a $1.17 million grant from the Erb Family Foundation to pursue people-centric solutions. The gift allowed the team to optimize stormwater and wastewater operations in Southeast Michigan and work with officials from Wayne County, Macomb County, Oakland County, and the Great Lakes Water Authority. 

The CLaSP department within U‑M’s College of Engineering also receives donor support, which has directly impacted Pettersen and the students with whom she works.

“We had an anonymous donor give to our department, specifically an experiential education grant,” Pettersen said. “That’s been something we’ve worked with to get undergrad students out in the field, to get them working with NASA and National Weather Service and all these people that are doing real, hands-on science.”

 
Powered by U‑M donors, the Graham Sustainability Institute and the Center for Global Health Equity assist Gronlund and her colleagues as they look into the benefits of weatherizing homes to combat the effects of extreme heat. The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services is interested in this research, Gronlund said, and its potential cost-savings to Michigan taxpayers, as hospital visits are often billed through Medicare and Medicaid. 

The scope of U‑M’s work continues to expand. In 2024, Pettersen traveled to Storm Peak Lab in Colorado to lead a collaborative National Science Foundation field campaign for observing cloud and snowfall processes, putting Michigan at the forefront of this research.

“We have some of the strongest partnerships in the country with these federal agencies,” Gronewold said. “The University of Michigan is continuously striving to anticipate changes in the federal funding landscape and ensure that we’re resilient moving forward.”

What’s the forecast for the future?

Snowflakes come in all different shapes. Sometimes they sparkle, and sometimes they turn into rain, forming and growing as they fall through the atmosphere. When they finally hit the ground, settling into Michigan’s snowpack, they can reveal key characteristics about that winter season, Pettersen said. All they need is a researcher, observing. 

“If we get more observations of what’s happening currently—and we’re foreseeing some big swings currently—then those can get built into models,” she said. “Then, we work together to try to give ourselves a better chance of forecasting and being resilient.”

A new project, “Future Proofing the Compact,” is supported by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, along with additional support from the Erb Family Foundation, the Joyce Foundation, and the Great Lakes Protection Fund at U‑M. The project is led by two U‑M students, who work with neighboring states’ representatives to protect laws that prevent Great Lakes water from being diverted. It’s a mix of diplomacy and science: a combination integral to future student success.

“They’re not just technical experts, they’re not just policy experts,” Gronewold said. “They blend those… [they need] training in things like economics, geospatial analysis, modeling, and data science, and those are all things that we specialize in at the University of Michigan.”

This mixture is crucial, especially when it comes to the preventable side effects of severe weather. 

“We need to provide support in a nimble and rapid way to our community and government partners using the skills we have to identify interventions and evaluate interventions,” Gronlund said. Local interventions include cooling centers, which are becoming more prevalent in Detroit with support from nonprofits. 

Looking to the future, Daigger recalled the past—his early days as an engineer, standing in front of a water tank alongside a team of other researchers, observing.

“What I learned is that there were two biologies you always had to work on: the biology in the tank and the biology standing around the tank,” Daigger said. “Any time you’re looking to try to improve the world, you bring your technical knowledge, but you work with people.”

“This is a very important thing for Michigan as it looks to be an asset to the region,” he continued. “It’s not just about us researchers, it’s not just about what we think up—it’s being able to connect that to the things people care about and engage them in the process.”