The Detroit News reported that Whitmer’s office is asking whether the lack of any tornado watch — an initial alert issued to warn residents to prepare when “Tornadoes are possible in and near the watch area,” according to the National Weather Service — was in any way caused by the Trump administration’s cuts at the agency.

“The National Weather Service exists to monitor conditions and inform Americans of severe weather in their communities. The fact that the (National Weather) Service did not issue a tornado watch is troubling, especially with the loss of life in Michigan,” Whitmer spokeswoman Stacey LaRouche said in a statement to the Detroit News. “While tornadoes can be hard to predict, the federal government should investigate whether the failure to issue a watch was related to federal cuts.”

Michigan Advance asked Whitmer’s office for a copy of the statement, but received no reply.

Friday’s storms, which included four tornadoes throughout the region, killed four people and left 22 injured, including a 12-year-old boy in Edwardsburg and three people in Union City, where the most severe tornado — which reached maximum wind speeds of 160 miles per hour — touched down.

Damage is seen on the outskirts of Prairie Rose Lane after a tornado in Union City, Mich., on Saturday, March 7, 2026. (Devin Anderson-Torrez/MLive via AP)

A number of tornado warnings, which are a more urgent alert from the National Weather Service, were issued, according to archival weather alert information, as well as a number of severe thunderstorm warnings and watches around the state. But no tornado watch was issued on Friday night anywhere in the region.

“At the moment Watch issuance was being considered, warnings were already in progress for the existing storm, and it was anticipated that the risk was only with this storm,” said Marissa Anderson, a National Weather Service spokesperson, in an emailed statement. “The storm was expected to weaken soon and thus not warrant a Watch. Although a Watch was not issued, local forecasters continuously monitored the evolving weather situation and issued specific Tornado Warnings to alert communities of the immediate threat.”

Bill Bunting, deputy director of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., told the Detroit News that a tornado watch was not issued in Friday’s storms because the conditions that produced the tornadoes were highly localized and difficult to detect in advance.

Volunteers look at storm damage after a suspected tornado hit the area a day earlier, in Union City Mich., Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)