EF1 Tornado — Livingston, Michigan

2025-05-15 · near Plainfield, Livingston, Michigan

Event narrative

A brief tornado touched down roughly halfway between Stockbridge and Gregory just north of M-106. Initial damage along M-106 was confined to trees with large limbs snapped and a couple uprooted. Structural damage occurred near the M-106 and Dutton Rd intersection with a shed suffering roof damage. Tornado continued

northeast and caused significant roof damage to 3 of the 4 barns

at Hickory Ridge Dairy Farm. Peak estimated winds was 90 MPH with this tornado.

Tree lines just north of these barns also suffered damage with snapped limbs. Tornado tracked east-northeast snapping hardwood trees in the woods east of the

farm. Tornado damage ended near Van Syckle Rd, south of the Lakeland

Trail. Winds gusted out beyond this point with a downburst south of

Gregory causing widespread tree damage up to Unadilla Rd. Peak wind

speeds during this phase were estimated at 70-75 mph.

Wider weather episode

A large and deep low pressure system (for mid-May standards) over the Upper Mississippi River Valley spawned severe thunderstorms, including tornadoes. An intense line of thunderstorms tracked across Lake Michigan during the evening of May 15th. This line produced localized wind gusts of 55-75 MPH over southwest lower Michigan, along with several large hail reports (up to 1.75 inches) and several weak tornadoes. As the line moved into southeast Michigan just before midnight, the moderate instability from the daytime heating (max temps reached into lower 80s) began to wane, and the air mass near the surface began to stabilize. This caused the storms to slowly weaken as they tracked through southeast Michigan during the early morning hours of Friday (May 16th). Despite this, four tornadoes were able to develop across parts of Saginaw, Genesee, and Livingston counties, with isolated to scattered severe thunderstorms across the rest of the area. Over all, most of the Detroit Metro area was spared and saw limited wind damage, as DTE energy outages peaked just under 10,000 customers.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.4541, -84.1372)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 1259739. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.