Home / Michigan / Kent

EF1 tornado in Kent County, Michigan

Tornado August 24, 2023 · Kent County, Michigan

EF1

Rating

8.7 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

$10.0M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

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.

The wider storm

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.

Began near Westgate (43.0642, -85.7414).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF2 Ingham County 2 dead

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1125048. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

Tornadoes near your address

See every tornado that passed near a place you know, measured to its path.