EF2 Tornado — Huron, Michigan

2021-06-26 · near Port Crescent, Huron, Michigan

Event narrative

A tornado touched down 4 miles SW of Port Austin just north of the intersection between Port Crescent Rd and Sand Rd. The tornado began as an EF-0, producing several snapped trees and tree limbs, uprooted trees, and damage to barns and outbuildings. The tornado then tracked northeast and crossed M-53 just south of its intersection with M-25. At this point, the tornado produced EF-2 damage to six houses, with three roofs completely detached, one house with major roof damage, two garages and one barn completely destroyed, and substantial tree damage. Estimated peak winds were 120 mph.

The tornado continued to track northeast toward N Hellems Rd and paralleled Pointe Aux Barques Rd, where numerous pine trees were damaged or destroyed and

some hardwood trees were snapped, consistent with EF-1 damage. The

tornado then tracked across the Eagle Bay public access point and

into Lake Huron.

Wider weather episode

After several weeks of moderate to severe drought conditions in Southeast Michigan, an active weather pattern brought widespread rainfall and flooding to Metro Detroit and surrounding areas during the weekend of June 25-27th. Low pressure tracking along a stalled stationary boundary interacted with a very moist subtropical air mass to produce widespread 3 to 5 inches of rainfall across Metro Detroit (localized 6 to 8 inches), resulting in numerous reports of major flooding within the Detroit metro vicinity, especially Washtenaw and Wayne Counties. In addition to the heavy rain, an EF-2 tornado was observed near Port Austin in Huron County during this event just before 5 pm EST on June 26th.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (44.0149, -83.0386)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 970108. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.