A huge line of severe storms marched across much of Michigan late Thursday and into early this morning, sparking a rolling wave of Tornado Warnings.
While the National Weather Service has not confirmed any official tornadoes as of early this morning, there were several reports of funnel clouds seen and possible tornado touchdowns, with rotation and accompanying “debris balls” seen on radar. It may be a day or two before we know if we had official tornadoes – and how many we had.
In some counties like Ingham, emergency managers went out overnight to see if they could spot any storm damage. The NWS is expected to send survey crews out today to check reports of damage to see if it was caused by a tornado, or just damaging straight-line winds.
Powerful winds topping 70 mph were reported, as well as “gustnado” type winds that downed a multitude of trees in the storm’s path. Gustnado winds are whirlwind-like gusts that form at the edge of a thunderstorm line.
These winds flipped at least two semis, trapping people inside, according to reports from emergency officials. One semi was reportedly flipped over in Ingham County on U.S. 127 near Barnes Street, south of Mason. The second report of an overturned semi came in from Eaton County, on Millet Highway between South Canal Road and South Creyts Road.
One of many trees to cause severe damage to a home in Oshtemo Township on Thursday night, May 15, 2025. Firefighters said there were trees through homes like this one on Wildemere Street throughout Kalamazoo County.Photo provided by Ryan Boldrey | MLive
High winds also sent trees into homes, including in Oshtemo Township in Kalamazoo County. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
More than 200,000 homes and businesses were without power early today. The bulk of these are Consumers Energy customers. The utility said it had mobilized 500 crews of company and contract line workers to handle outages ahead of Thursday’s storm.
