GAINES TWP., MI – Reports of a tornado overnight in Genesee County’s Gaines Township were unfounded after residents were sent scurrying for shelter by emergency sirens in the early-morning hours Monday.
The National Weather Service got a call from officials in Gaines Township that emergency sirens sounded around 1 a.m. Aug. 27 after reports of a tornado touchdown.
However, National Weather Service officials said data and radar showed no rotation and straight-line winds.
“We don’t think it was a tornado,” said Trent Frey, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “There also were no reports of damage.”
Frey did not know the specific location where the unfounded tornado was reported.
There have not been any other confirmed reports since that initial report came in, Frey said.
More than 47,000 lost power as thunderstorms rolled across Mid-Michigan, from Muskegon County on the west to Tuscola County on the east.
by Dominic Adams (2018, August 27) mLIVE
