Storms 6/26

[organman95]

Video of the tornado that went through Port Austin

https://fb.watch/6oaEe76Dh_/

Hell of a weather day for Michigan (and the meteorologists!).

[Jason Kragt]

I was driving through central Michigan yesterday. Good thing I had a weatherradio in the car. Local radio stations were useless. I did receive some notifications on my phone that severe weather was in the area. If I hadn't had the weatherradio, I wouldn't have known whether it would be best to keep driving or stop and wait. Local radio stations have utterly abandoned their obligation to provide any local emergency information beyond the required EAS alerts.

[MWmetalhead]

I'm afraid the URL you posted, organman95, doesn't go to the video in question.

[bmw]

I'm gonna guess this is the one:

[bmw]

btw - I watched WNEM's coverage for about a half hour, and it was outstanding, IMO.

[MWmetalhead]

The NWS reportedly failed to issue any warning for the Port Austin tornado. That would explain the lack of an EAS alert.

I do not know if a severe tstorm warning was in effect at the time.

The weekend meteorologist on WXYZ just showed a replay of the radar from the time period in question. There was definitely strong mesocyclonic rotation showing up as early as Caseville. Given the wind sheer present that day, the NWS definitely should've placed the area under a tornado warning.

NWS GRR issued tornado warnings for its region of responsibility immediately on Saturday when such signatures appeared on radar within its county warning area, even for some that were comparatively less pronounced than the one that appeared on radar in northern Huron County.

[mr v]

Maybe I was doing it wrong, but at 6:35 PM Saturday when I clicked on the ABC 12 Livestream link on their website I had to watch a commercial, then it played Kevin Goff's 6 PM weather report. I was getting no up to date info on the approaching storms. Do live steams only take place at newstime?

[ChrisWL1980]

I watched WNEM's coverage on Facebook Live and agree Chris, John and Mathieu did an outstanding job. There was no tornado warning issued for Huron County to my knowledge, but they did mention there was a cell showing some rotation (though not particularly strong at the time) over Saginaw Bay that was likely to clip northern Huron County and that viewers from Caseville farther north should be on the alert.
With no tornado warning, however, the first word of a possible touchdown came from area viewers commenting on social media.
Thank God there were no fatalities. Latest word is six injuries and an EF2 rating. It appears this is the strongest tornado to strike Huron County since an EF3 hit Bay Port in June 1984 after striking Bay City and then moving out over the bay (I'm not sure if the EF3 damage was done in Huron County though).

[Mike]

It appears this is the strongest tornado to strike Huron County since an EF3 hit Bay Port in June 1984 after striking Bay City and then moving out over the bay (I'm not sure if the EF3 damage was done in Huron County though).

Apparently it was still EF-3 when it came back onshore at Bay Port: https://www.michigansthumb.com/news/art ... 265134.php (It's mentioned in the last section of this article.)

Worth noting: The "current event" for that article is an August 2015 tornado that also had no Tornado Warning preceding it (only a Severe Thunderstorm Watch + Warning had been issued). Make of that what you will.

[Deleted User 15331]

Kudos to WNEM.

[organman95]

My understanding was that visual report came in about the same time that it showed up on radar. Being right on the lake, and using NWS out of Detroit (is Gaylord a shorter distance?) was/is the problem.

Need someone like Gary England here for this kind of weather.

[BillyChilly]

Maybe I was doing it wrong, but at 6:35 PM Saturday when I clicked on the ABC 12 Livestream link on their website I had to watch a commercial, then it played Kevin Goff's 6 PM weather report. I was getting no up to date info on the approaching storms. Do live steams only take place at newstime?

I attempted the same thing around the same time and I got a replay of their 6PM newscast; definitely irrelevant to the quickly changing situation.

I have to give props to WEYI; I'm not typically a fan of them but chose their coverage over WNEM, as I figured it would be more Flint-focused. I was pleased with their coverage of the cell in Shiawassee and Genesee Counties and noting where storm chasers were seeing rotation. They stayed live until the tornado warning expired around 7:15.

[Deleted User 15555]

How was JRT’s coverage? I assume Kevin Goff was working. How about Kirtek?

[MWmetalhead]

Mr. England from NEWS9 in OKC is now happily retired, but yes, he was phenomenal at providing live storm coverage.

James Spann at ABC 33-40 in Birmingham, AL is equally as good.

[jmeltonwx]

How was JRT’s coverage? I assume Kevin Goff was working. How about Kirtek?

Kirtek was not there, but Burkhart came in to help Goff with Matt Franklin at the news desk. I thought their coverage was ok, but only caught a little bit of it as I was mainly paying attention to WLNS out of Lansing.