EF1 Tornado — Kent, Michigan

2023-08-24 · near Westgate, Kent, Michigan

Event narrative

A tornado began east of Peach Ridge Avenue and north of 6 Mile Road and moved east northeast for almost 9 miles, ending just west of Rockford High School. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. Structural damage was done to buildings in the 5600 block of Alpine Avenue and to homes in a subdivision just north of the intersection of 7 Mile Road and Pine Island Drive. Peak wind speeds in this area were estimated to be 110 mph making this an upper end EF-1 tornado.

Wider weather episode

Severe storms developed during the evening hours in an extremely unstable environment. Two tornadoes occurred. The first tornado touched down in west central Kent County from Alpine Township to Plainfield Township and was rated an EF-1. The second tornado touched down in eastern Ingham County from Williamston to Webberville, before continuing on into Livingston County, and was rated an EF-2 in Ingham County before weakening to an EF-1 in Livingston County. The thunderstorms produced numerous areas of 60 to 75 mph wind gusts and vivid lightning. The combination of the tornadoes, strong wind gusts, and continuous lightning resulted in power outages to 460,000 customers statewide.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (43.0642, -85.7414)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1125048. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.