Thunderstorm Wind — Clinton, Michigan

2001-10-24 · near Maple Rapids, Clinton, Michigan

Wider weather episode

A major severe weather episode occurred across southern lower Michigan, highlighted by three supercell thunderstorms that caused extensive damage. The first supercell storm moved into southwest Kalamazoo county just southwest of Schoolcraft. This storm moved northeast at 50 to 55 m.p.h. across Kalamazoo, extreme northwest Calhoun, southeast Barry, northwest Eaton, southeast Ionia, northwest Clinton and Gratiot counties. It produced a swath of damage 2 miles wide in which thousands of trees were either broken off or uprooted, and some structural damage occurred to homes, barns and larger buildings. Much of the damage resulted from trees falling on homes. A few older homes had major structural damage when their roofs were blown off and walls knocked down. Power lines were blown down along the entire track of the storm, leaving about 15,000 people without power. Straight line winds of 60 to 70 m.p.h. were common and storm damage indicated that downbursts produced winds of 90 to 100 m.p.h. The second supercell began producing damage in Marshall, in central Calhoun county. The storm moved northeast at 50 to 55 m.p.h. across north central Calhoun, southeast Eaton, northwest Ingham, and extreme southeast Clinton counties. This storm generally produced winds between 60 and 80 m.p.h. across Calhoun county, where it blew part of a roof off a hotel in Marshall and also uprooted trees and produced minor structural damage across the rest of the county. The storm intensified as it moved into Eaton county, where it produced straight line wind damage consistent with 90 to 110 m.p.h. winds as it crossed Narrow Lake, near Brookfield. It snapped off trees, caused structural damage to homes, and took out power lines at Narrow Lake. The storm crossed the remainder of the county and uprooted trees, downed power lines, blew a home off its foundation, and blew in garage doors that caused garage roofs to lift up and cave in. The storm damaged about 60 homes across Eaton county and caused about one million dollars worth of damage. The storm entered Ingham county and produced damage consistent with 60 to 80 m.p.h. winds. As it crossed Jolly road, a very localized downburst to 120 m.p.h. snapped 18 inch diameter power poles about 20 feet above the ground. It toppled trees in East Lansing and did minor damage to roofs. The storm blew over and damaged quonset huts utilized for storage at Michigan State Police Headquarters in East Lansing. Only minor additional damage was reported as the storm moved across extreme southeast Clinton county. The third supercell storm began near Tekonsha in south central Calhoun county. It moved northeast between 50 and 55 m.p.h. across Calhoun, northwest Jackson and Ingham county. It produced winds to 90 m.p.h. in Tekonsha where it destroyed a number of mobile homes, causing injuries to 6 people. The storm produced mainly tree damage and minor structural damage along the remainder of it's track, and also blew down a barn just north of Webberville in Ingham county. One fatality occurred 3 miles east of Maple Rapids, where a tree was blown down onto a pickup truck, killing the 46 year old Maple Rapids man who was driving. The rest of the thunderstorms across the area blew down several trees and power lines but did not cause extensive damage.

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Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5271255. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.