It’s been exactly a year since two thunderstorms spawned six tornadoes that twisted a path north through West Michigan, leaving wrecked buildings and vehicles, downed trees and other damage in their wake. For more than two hours on Aug. 20, 2016, the tornado outbreak that started in Van Buren County continued northeast, touching down in Ottawa, Allegan and Kent counties before the final twister formed near the Ionia and Montcalm county border.
Despite all the destruction, no deaths or serious injuries were reported.
Here’s a look at how that strange weather event unfolded…
According to the National Weather Service and MLive Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa, one persistent thunderstorm produced five of the tornado touchdowns. A second storm produced the last tornado.
The first tornado formed at 1:13 p.m. at Bangor in Van Buren County.
The last one ended at 3:25 p.m. three miles southeast of Sheridan.
The National Weather Service put together a rundown of each tornado that afternoon:
EF-1 tornado between Bangor and north of Grand Junction, in Van Buren and southern Allegan Counties.
EF-1 tornado southeast of Fennville to east of Hamilton, in Allegan County.
EF-1 tornado south of Jamestown in far northern Allegan County and southeastern Ottawa County.
EF-0 tornado in Grandville and Wyoming in Kent County. EF-0 to EF-1 winds occurred leading up to this tornado in Byron Township to southern portions of Grandville.
EF-0 tornado in northeast Grand Rapids in Kent County. EF-0 winds also occurred leading up to this tornado in south-central Grand Rapids.
EF-1 tornado between Orleans and Fenwick in Ionia and Montcalm Counties.
by Tanda Gmiter
August 20, 2017
