CASS COUNTY MI — Three separate tornadoes ripped through Cass County just north of the Michigan Indiana border Tuesday evening. The storms were part of a much bigger system of severe weather that spawned more than 25 tornadoes across five states and more than 600 reports of severe weather.
The National Weather Service from North Webster, Indiana is responsible for our southern Michigan Counties… specifically Berrien, Cass, St. Joseph, and Branch. They issue the weather forecasts for those areas along with any watches/warnings/advisories. There was no tornado warning in effect, but severe thunderstorms were rolling through the area…and remember severe thunderstorms often can/do spawn tornadoes.
The NWS concluded their damage survey on Wednesday afternoon and found that an EF-1 tornado occurred in Niles (on the border of Berrien/Cass County) at 8:54 P.M.. It was 100 yards wide, traveled a bit more than half of mile, and produced winds of 105 mile per hour. It was on the ground for only two minutes.
Tornado #2 occurred in Dowagiac and was an EF-1 with 105 mph winds. Path length was five miles, and the width was 100 yards. It touched down at 8:58 P.M. and lifted at 9:02 P.M..
Tornado #3 hit Vandalia as an EF-1 with 110 mph winds. It cut a damage path 2.7 miles long with a width of 150 yards. Touchdown occurred at 9:12 P.M. and lifted three minutes later.
We also have other areas of damage reported across our southern counties that may be surveyed or investigated by the NWS. Oliverda Lake, which is near M-60 and M-66 corridor in Branch County, had at least one home damaged. Also…the M-86 corridor between Three Rivers and Coldwater may have been hit hard from strong, damaging winds. Below is the photo of the house from Oliverda Lake.
Get more on this survey by clicking here. Get the complete forecast at www.fox17online.com/weather.
