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EF0 tornado in Kent County, Michigan

Tornado August 20, 2016 · Kent County, Michigan

EF0
Rating
4.2 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$500K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

The fourth tornado of the day was an EF-0 in southwestern Kent county. Along the path, hundreds of trees were damaged or knocked over resulting in tens of thousands of power outages. Many homes and a number of vehicles were damaged from fallen trees.

A couple notable locations the tornado moved through include the Wyoming Middle School football field where a set of football field goal posts were bent by soccer goals, and Battjes Park and Prairie Park where a number of trees were damaged or uprooted.

The wider storm

Six tornadoes struck southwest Michigan on August 20th. An EF-1 tornado touched down just southwest of Bangor on August 20th and tracked northeast through town. The entire city lost power as well as hundreds of trees. Multiple structures in Bangor were damaged as well.

The second tornado of the day began 6 miles southeast of Fennville and tracked to 4 miles northeast of Hamilton and was rated EF-1. The day's third tornado, also rated EF-1, began 2 miles northwest of Burnips in extreme north-central Allegan County and tracked to 2 miles southeast of Jamestown in extreme southeast Ottawa County.

The day's fourth tornado was rated an EF-0 and touched down near 44th Street and Ivanrest Ave SW in Grandville and continued on the ground along a varying path through Grandville and Wyoming before lifting near the intersection of Nagel Avenue SW and Chicago Drive SW. The fifth tornado was also an EF-0 and it touched down in Kent County near Perkins Avenue NE between Leonard Street NE and Knapp Street NE.

The final tornado of the day was an EF-1 that touched down just east of the small town of Orleans and moved northeast where it crossed M-44. It crossed into Montcalm county from Ionia county before lifting near Sheridan.

Began near Grandville Arpt (42.8848, -85.7461).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 654697. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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