National Weather Service confirms tornadoes touched down near Saline, Milan
National Weather Service crews took this photo of where the tornado touched down in Monroe County.
Photo courtesy of the National Weather Service
Two tornadoes touched down in the area during Wednesday night's storms - one south of Saline and one south of Milan, the National Weather Service confirmed tonight.
Trained spotters reported the potential tornadoes Wednesday evening as a series of storms moved through the region, accompanied by significant rainfall, lightning and wind gusts up to 72 mph.
The tornado that touched down south of Milan was blamed for moderate structural damage in one area, but no injuries were reported as a result of either tornado, officials said.
The National Weather Service sent crews to the Saline and Milan areas today to determine whether tornadoes had in fact touched down. Officials said two tornadoes were confirmed.
This photo also was taken of the tornado touchdown south of Milan.
Photo courtesy of the National Weather Service
The first tornado touched down at 9:56 p.m. near the intersection of Milkey Road and Saline-Milan Road, about 2.5 miles southeast of Saline. The weather service said in a written report that the tornado tracked east-northeast and lifted off the ground near Carpenter Road between Judd and Willis Road, just east of US-23.
The tornado caused tree damage, but no structural damage or injuries, officials said. It was rated an EF0 - the mildest of six categories assigned to tornadoes - with winds estimated at 70 mph. The path length was approximately 3.5 miles, and the width was 75 yards, the weather service said.
The second tornado came minutes later in Monroe County, near Milan. That tornado touched down at 10:06 p.m. just north of the Cone Road exit off US-23, about two miles south of Milan.
The weather service said the tornado lifted off the ground about 2-1/2 miles northeast of Maybee, near Steffas Road between Scofield and Zink. The total path length was 11.5 miles, and the path width was 50 yards.
That tornado also was rated an EF0 along most of its path, producing winds of 60 mph to 70 mph, the weather service said. But officials say it resulted in EF1 damage - rated as moderate - near Tuttle Hill Road in London Township, with winds extimated at 90 mph.
A roof was torn off of a pole barn, and substantial tree damage was found, the weather service said. Several homes also had roof and shingle damage. The width of the tornado briefly extended to 100 yards in that location.
Meteorologists also discovered straight line wind damage to the east of where the tornado lifted, continuing into the Newport area. The damage included some downed power lines, minor tree damage and plastic taken out of a green house, the weather service said.
Earlier this month, a tornado touched down in Dundee, causing significant damage there.
Comments
Cash
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 12:29 p.m.
Lefty, I happened to be tuned into the Weather Channel on 30 when that happened too. The commercials on the Weather Channel switch to some local Comcast ones once in awhile. That happened at the same time and the the warning scrawl was cut off and the local Comcast commercials were on instead. Before that, the scrawl had run even during commercials. Unfortunately that was right when the tornado waring was broadcast for Washtenaw County. Frankly I think the Weather Channel should stick to weather. They are getting way off the track since NBC bought them, in my opinion. I am not a channel 2 (234)fan, but at 10PM they did an hour of storm coverage. For us locals, it did seem funny to see them beaming down on Whittaker!
Jacob Bodnar
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 11:33 a.m.
Lefty, don't blame Comcast for the commercials on The Weather Channel. TWC determines when to take those commercials breaks, not Comcast, and that Comcast commercial was coincidental. During a storm like that don't watch the National network, not nearly focused enough on our area, tune into a local station or use the Internet for information, or just go to your basement or tornado area just in case.
Ricebrnr
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 8:38 a.m.
Might I suggest that in emergency situations or severe weather that you hedge your bets by: 1) use a NOAA weather radio 2) use a portable scanner programmed to local emergency services or related agencies (Huron Valley Ambulance, MI DPS, DTE etc for example) 3) Listen to the streaming Washtenaw County Emergency services feed (Police/Fire/EMS) that Ed had previously linked to: radioreference.com/apps/audio/?ctid=1307 4) keep your tv's and radios tuned to local stations. a2gov.org/government/safetyservices/emergencymanagement/SirenWarningSystem/Pages/default.aspx 5) use the internet, Per Ed's article: annarbor.com/vielmetti/severe-weather-links-checking-the-progress-of-storms-as-they-roll-by/index.php Using these in combination, my family was well informed early enough to take our time gathering some supplies and prepping our basement for the night. We also were able to track the storm and when it was safe. Don't rely on 1 thing, layer your security. Cheers and be safe. 1*
Barb
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 8:07 a.m.
Yup, the HD Weather Channel does not do the "Local on 8's" for our area. Isn't that nice? Fortunately, in this day and age, there are lots of sources of up-to-the-minute weather info. I certainly am not putting my life in Comcast's hands for this.
YpsiGreen
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 8 a.m.
Since you're on the topic, another thing I noticed with Comcast is the Emergency Alert System (EAS) crawler only appears on the SD Weather Channel (Ch. 30) but not the HD Weather Channel (Ch. 245). I discovered this by accident during one of the latest storms. Talk about missing some crucial links.
a2dancelady
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 7:35 a.m.
I was watching the Fox channel with my Comcast cable service and the program was interrupted at least six times by the complete Emergency notification system given in both written and voice format. So I felt that Comcast did its job of providing the appropriate storm warnings, at least on the major network channels. The storm warnings were also constantly scrolling across the bottom of my TV screen.
sellers
Fri, Jun 25, 2010 : 7:33 a.m.
lefty, you can always use Weather Underground to track storms. That is what I used and it was very handy. Also, the Wunderground Radio and NOAA radio worked well keeping things going. They have a station out of Adrian/Petersberg that can server Saline well
lefty48197
Thu, Jun 24, 2010 : 11:03 p.m.
What a TERRIBLE DISSERVICE Comcast did to this community as this storm approached. I turned to channel 30 to track the progress of this storm. I looked at the TV and scrolling across the bottom of the screen I saw, "...this dangerous storm was located 5 miles west of..." At that point, the weather report cut away to a commercial. To a comcast commercial no less. We had a tornado warning in effect, a tornado was soon going to touch down in this community, and Comcast was more interested in selling more subscriptions than informing the public of the impending storm. That's when I turned to channel 101 the "other" weather channel. I then learned that I would have to pay additional monthly fees to receive that channel, in spite of the fact that I already pay about $100 per month for my tv and cable services. If Comcast cannot keep constant weather updates on the air during impending severe weather, then they have no business having a charter to provide cable TV service in the Ann Arbor area.