Thunderstorm Wind — Calhoun, Michigan

1998-06-12 · near Pennfield, Calhoun, Michigan

Event narrative

The same supercell thunderstorm which produced the F1 tornado in northwest Calhoun County produced a wet microburst as it moved across Pennfield Township. The downburst caused one fatality and 2 injuries approximately 1/2 mile south of Pennfield High School, just east of the Battle Creek River in the vicinity of Pony Street and Clarence Blvd. Approximately 12 homes sustained varying degrees of damage in this location. Two modular homes on adjacent properties along Clarence Blvd. were blown off their foundations and destroyed. A 75 year old man in the northernmost structure was killed, while a teenage girl who occupied the neighboring home was critically injured and her mother sustained minor injuries. A 20 foot camping trailer was hurled in a grove of small trees over 100 feet away and was demolished. In addition, several vehicles were damaged. A damage survey conducted by the National Weather Service Office in Grand Rapids revealed a unidirectional damage pattern associated with straight-line winds. It appeared a powerful wet microburst occurred in Pennfield Township as the severe thunderstorm mesocyclone weakened. Wind speeds were estimated to have reached 120 mph at the damage site.

Wider weather episode

Several severe thunderstorms developed during the afternoon of Friday, June 12th across southwest and south central Lower Michigan in an unstable air mass south of a stationary front, which extended east-west across the central portion of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. One of these storms developed into a supercell over southern Barry County. This supercell thunderstorm propagated east-southeast across Calhoun and Jackson Counties from approximately 4:20 pm until 5:45 pm EDT and spawned an F1 tornado and two damaging microbursts. The microburst which hit Pennfield Township in Calhoun County killed a 75-year old male and injured 2 females (one of which, a 13-year old female, was critically injured) when their respective modular homes were destroyed. NWS Grand Rapids officials estimated wind speeds reached 120 mph in the Pennfield Township downburst. The tornado did not result in any deaths or injuries, but did approximately $50,000 in damage just south of Bedford in Calhoun County. Overall, downed trees and power lines and lightning strikes knocked out power to 22,000 in southern Michigan, most of which occurred in Barry, Calhoun, and Wayne Counties (in southeast Lower Michigan).

View location on OpenStreetMap → (42.3700, -85.1000)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 5658529. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.