Thunderstorm Wind — Calhoun, Michigan

2011-05-29 · near West Leroy, Calhoun, Michigan

Event narrative

The bowing segment of a line echo wave pattern caused extensive damage to homes, businesses, and utilities on the south side of Battle Creek along E Columbia Ave. Approximately 600 homes were damaged with 76 of those homes having been destroyed. Also, 21 businesses were damaged of which 4 were destroyed. To the north and east of the Battle Creek area, two dozen rural properties also sustained damage. Throughout the county, over 40,000 customers were without power and thousands of trees were either uprooted or snapped. The damage path was 33 miles long and ranged from 0.5 mile up to 2 miles in width.

Wider weather episode

Severe thunderstorms developed during the mid to late afternoon hours of May 29 from Vicksburg east northeast to Battle Creek and Charlotte. An NWS storm survey found significant damage resulting from straight line wind damage resulting from severe thunderstorm winds of up to 85 to 100 mph. A state of emergency was declared for Calhoun county due to widespread wind damage.

The storms developed north of a warm front that separated mild weather to the north of it from hot weather south of the boundary. The storms traveled into northern Illinois just after noon, and then moved across southern lower Michigan between 2 pm and 6 pm. The storms strengthened as they reached far southern lower Michigan as they encountered warmer and more humid air. The NWS Grand Rapids storm survey teams found no conclusive evidence of any tornadoes from southern Kalamazoo county east northeast through Calhoun county and up into Eaton and Ingham counties. Nearly 40,000 people across Calhoun county lost power due to all the wind damage and lightning.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.2380, -85.3700)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 297226. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.