A trio of small twisters gave some residents a scare Thursday as they appeared on the horizon in Sanilac County.
Residents of Croswell said tornado warning sirens began and lasted for three minutes around 8 p.m. Thursday.
Alex Manion, meteorologist The National Weather Service in White Lake Township confirmed the funnel clouds appeared in the sky for less than 30 minutes.
“Funnel clouds respond off of a shower, the tornado threat was very minimal but sometimes, you can get this low scale rotation when winds spin just right,” said Manion.
In this case, the funnels were harmless he said.
“They generally pose almost zero threat… they’re more ominous looking than anything else,” said Manion. Local resident Ed DeView posted photos of the weather phenomena on Facebook, saying: “Three funnel clouds we spotted, with the first just north of town on old 51.”
DeView said he was called to his daughter’s practice on the softball field behind Cros-Lex Middle School when the coach cleared the field and sheltered the girls in the dugout. She and his son who was practicing football on the adjacent field were dismissed early.
“At that time, about 7:45 p.m., no warning sirens were sounded,” DeView said. “The third funnel cloud did the same as the previous one, it came down and then back up twice before going back into the clouds. That cloud was south-west of the high school. It was at this time that the city of Croswell activated the tornado sirens.”
He said fire trucks were dispatched to the area as a lookout.
Some commented they were golfing and others watching a football practice at the local high school while others rushed to their basements.
by Sarah Rahal (2018, August 10) The Detroit News
