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EF1 tornado in Cass County, Michigan

Tornado May 7, 2024 · Cass County, Michigan

EF1
Rating
11.7 mi
Path length
950 yd
Path width
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 950 yards (0.54 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

An EF-1 tornado with maximum wind speeds of 95 mph occurred in the early evening of May 7th in Cass county, MI. The tornado touched down in a field just north of the Dowagiac Municipal Airport. The tornado did damage to trees along Middle Crossing Rd, even uprooting a few large trees onto homes in the area. The tornado continued northeast, where a power pole was snapped and a few center pivots were flipped in a field adjacent to the Amtrak railroad near the intersection of Gage Street and Atwood Road. The tornado reached its maximum width in the Twin Lakes area, where extensive damage to trees was noted on all sides of both lakes. Hundreds of trees of varying sizes were snapped and uprooted in Twin Lakes. The tornado continued northeast, snapping trees on Dewey Lake Street. Additional damage to a barn was noted on Wickett Road. The tornado dissipated near the Cass/Van Buren county line.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms produced severe tornadoes, large hail, and damaging wind gusts on the afternoon and evening of May 7. The largest hail stone reported was 4 inches in diameter.

Began near Dowagiac Cass Arpt (41.9950, -86.1227).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1167149. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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