Tornadoes confirmed
At least three hit U.P. Monday
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ESCANABA -- At least three tornadoes touched down in the Upper Peninsula during a weather event on Monday, reported the National Weather Service (NWS) on Friday. One was at Delta County’s O.B. Fuller Park; the other two were in Marquette County and Menominee County.
The conditions Monday evening formed multiple supercells, NWS Marquette office said in a statement. A supercell is the least common type of thunderstorm and has a “high propensity to produce severe weather, including damaging winds, very large hail, and sometimes weak to violent tornadoes,” says the NWS. “What makes a supercell unique from all other thunderstorm types is that it contains a deep and persistent rotating updraft called a mesocyclone.”
On Monday evening, as people around the region took shelter, a waterspout formed at 6:31 p.m. EDT off of Shot Point, which is on Lake Superior between Marquette and Au Train. “Video and radar evidence suggest a waterspout moved on shore, (but) no surveyable damage was found by storm survey team,” the NWS report states.
At 7:47 p.m. EDT, a tornado formed in Gourley Township in Menominee County. The NWS estimates that its peak wind was 104 mph, its width was 35 yards, and the length traveled was 0.14 miles. Damage was caused to “mostly large white pines of approximately one to three feet in diameter,” the report said. As remote areas were not accessible, the storm survey may be updated later.
At 7:58 p.m. EDT, about five miles from the previous tornado, another one touched down in the woods of Fuller Park, which is in Ford River Township. The NWS survey indicated that a tornado with a peak wind speed of 90 mph damaged a stand of softwood trees before shifting offshore. The path had a maximum width of about 25 yards and a length of 0.3 miles.
Additional damage in the areas of the latter two tornadoes was consistent with straight-line winds. Both were classified as EF1 on the scale used to score tornadoes, which is the second weakest, based on wind speed. The one that touched Lake Superior was uncategorized, as there was no damage to survey.
In all three events, zero injuries were reported.
“The NWS Marquette Weather Forecast Office would like to thank the public, the Delta County and Menominee County Sheriff departments, and the employees of OB Fuller County Park, whose information helped complete this storm survey,” the report concluded.