Tornado confirmed in Elkhart, South Bend dodged worst of storm damage. Forecast is better

South Bend ― St. Joseph County's weather is in the clear after last night's severe thunderstorms and high winds.

While South Bend saw thunderstorms last night, they were weakened once they came into the South Bend area, according to National Weather Service Meteorologist Lonnie Fisher. While the storms left limited damage in South Bend, Elkhart was hit with a tornado last night.

Overall, St. Joseph County “dodged a bullet” with no tornado touchdowns and damage limited mostly to trees, Al “Buddy” Kirsits, the county’s emergency management director, said. Still, he noted some property damage. WNDU shared a photo by viewer Justin Miller showing the roof of Kraft Auction House in Walkerton that had been blown off by severe winds in the storm.

Kirsits said he's happy that the county’s dispatch center triggered the outdoor emergency warning sirens early as storms just began to enter the county’s western edge, relying on an alert from the National Weather Service.

But he noted that two of the county’s 67 sirens didn’t function Monday. One was at Primrose and Cleveland Road, at the northwest edge of South Bend, and has been an ongoing problem, he told county commissioners on Tuesday.

The county is in the midst of upgrading all 67 sirens with American Rescue Plan funding, but he lamented that it has taken longer than expected, due to a slow shipment of parts.

He said he’s tried to avoid dipping into the county’s repair fund, now with $28,000, but, after commissioners urged him to repair the sirens soon, he said he may have to do that as he calls in a contractor to get it done.

Last night there were high winds, severe storms and tornado warnings issued throughout St. Joseph County.

A tornado watch is issued when the conditions are favorable for severe weather, Fisher said. Tornado warnings on the other hand indicate an increased concern for one or more tornadoes in the area. It also means meteorologists received something on a radar that suggests a tornado is about to form, could form or has already been confirmed.

The previous weather is part of why the NWS issued the warning, said Jack Van Meter, a meteorologist at WNDU. In the previous three days, a strong line of thunderstorms moved throughout the area and this pattern is often called "The Ring of Fire" by meteorologists.

"It's a pretty scary like sounding term up front, but what it means is there's a big high pressure system that was out west," Van Meter said. "And what it was really doing was deflecting a lot of weather towards the plain states and the western part of United States and really just bringing it down over the Great Lakes area."

The South Bend area saw the last of the "Ring of Fire" pattern last night. But the forecast for the Great Lakes is still affected by last night's storms according to Fisher. The NWS issued a hazardous weather outlook on today's forecast. The hazardous weather outlook gives a snapshot of some possible hazardous conditions.

Currently the NWS is watching for rough swim conditions up in Lake Michigan, but Fisher said despite the outlook on the website there aren't currently threats of severe weather.

While there aren't currently threats of severe weather, the National Weather Service confirmed today that there was a tornado in Elkhart.

The tornado in Elkhart was categorized as an EF-1 with winds of 90 mph, according to WNDU coverage.

The greatest damage to trees in Elkhart was found near Naomi Street, Mather Avenue and East Carlton Avenue, but it didn't extend beyond Main Street, Fisher said.

Mishawaka also saw tree damage in the neighborhood around 11th Street and South Main Street.

Elkhart has declared in a state of emergency as cleanup from the storm is currently taking place. There were no deaths reported from last night's tornado, but Elkhart Mayor Rod Roberson told WNDU that it almost wasn't the case.

“I was told one story where a young teen wasn’t sleeping in his bed, he was sleeping on the couch. And the tree that went through his home went right through his bed,” Roberson said in a WNDU article. “Had he been in his bed, we wouldn’t have been talking about no injuries or maybe even fatalities. That’s how close we came to this being a disaster of a different proportion.”

While the hazardous weather conditions have passed, there are still impacts from last night's storm, including power outages. Near Elkhart there are 2,198 customer outages, according to Indiana and Michigan's power outage map as of 5:24 p.m. According to WNDU coverage, NIPSCO reported 5,600 power outages across Elkhart County.

Tribune staff columnist Joseph Dits contributed to the reporting of this article.

Contact Tribune staff writer Rose Androwich at randrowich@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: A tornado hit Elkhart: Here's what meteorologists are saying