5 tornadoes have touched down in Michigan in 2023

Frank Witsil, Detroit Free Press
Updated ·2 min read
2

So far this year, there have been five confirmed tornado touchdowns in Michigan.

In an average year, about 800 tornadoes are reported nationwide, and the violent rotating columns of air that come in contact with land and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, a cumulus cloud, result in about 80 deaths and 1500 injuries, according to the National Weather Service.

Here are the tornadoes in the state so far:

A tornado that touched down in Perry, Michigan, on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, was so powerful it tore trees out by their roots.
A tornado that touched down in Perry, Michigan, on Friday, Aug. 11, 2023, was so powerful it tore trees out by their roots.

Aug. 11: A tornado touched down in Perry, in Shiawassee County, about a 30-minute drive east from Lansing.

An apparent tornado that was reported near Perry on Friday Aug. 11, 2023, is seen in this photo take by Owosso resident Bill Bouwman while driving home from Lansing on Interstate 69.
An apparent tornado that was reported near Perry on Friday Aug. 11, 2023, is seen in this photo take by Owosso resident Bill Bouwman while driving home from Lansing on Interstate 69.

July 24: Near Lexington, in Sanilac County, traveled about 5 miles.

Roofing work is done after storm damage, Thursday, July 13, 2023, Colon, Mich. In southern Michigan, a team from the weather service and local emergency management will survey damage Thursday from a possible tornado that was reported Wednesday night near the village of Colon, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Kalamazoo.
Roofing work is done after storm damage, Thursday, July 13, 2023, Colon, Mich. In southern Michigan, a team from the weather service and local emergency management will survey damage Thursday from a possible tornado that was reported Wednesday night near the village of Colon, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) southeast of Kalamazoo.

July 12: Colon, about 30 miles south of Battle Creek, and damaged several barns.

A large oak tree fell onto this home on South Grove Street in Grand Beach, Frenchtown Township. "This is the worst I have seen," Frenchtown Fire Chief Wendy Stevens said. The family was not home at the time the tree fell, residents in the area said. All up and down South Grove Street were several massive trees that fell due to a possible tornado Thursday evening, June 15, 2023.

June 15: Woodland Beach in Frenchtown, also in Monroe County, was hit. Trees and a home were damaged.

Part of the roof and bricks were blown off a building in downtown Dundee when a tornado struck Saturday morning.
Part of the roof and bricks were blown off a building in downtown Dundee when a tornado struck Saturday morning.

April 1: One touched down in Dundee, which is in Monroe County, damaging buildings, vehicles and trees.

The worst tornado on record in Michigan, and one of the worst in the nation, hit the Flint area on June 8, 1953. It resulted in 116 deaths and 844 injuries, according to the weather service.

Front page of the Lansing State Journal from June 9, 1953.
Front page of the Lansing State Journal from June 9, 1953.

That tornado — rated as an F5, the most intense — stood as the worst ever with more than 100 fatalities, until 2011, when a catastrophic, mile-wide tornado leveled about a third of Joplin, Missouri, and killed at least 161 people, destroying about 4,500 homes and businesses, and caused an estimated $3 billion in damage.

More: Michigan's worst-ever tornado was like an atomic bomb, leveling a big swath of Flint

The day after the Flint tornado touched down, Free Press writer Jerome Hansen compared the storm's aftermath in a personal essay to the destruction he also witnessed from the atomic bomb detonation in Nagasaki, Japan. He said the devastation was "like a scene from Dante's 'Inferno.' "

Contact Frank Witsil: 313-222-5022 or fwitsil@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: 5 tornadoes have touched down in Michigan in 2023