A tornado touched down in southern Elkhart County during the storms that moved through the area on Saturday, Aug. 20, according to The National Weather Service, as reported by 95.3 MNC’s news partners at The Elkhart Truth.
The National Weather Service Northern Indiana office in Syracuse confirmed the twister after visiting the area southwest of U.S. 6 and County Road 133 after the storms hit the area just after 3 p.m., The Elkhart Truth reported.
The EF-0 tornado, which is the weakest on the enhanced Fujita scale, packed winds of 65 to 70 mph and about 50 yards wide at its peak. The tornado was only on the ground for about one minute, The Elkhart Truth reported.
Read more from The Elkhart Truth about the damage that the tornado caused.
In Allen County, an EF-0 tornado touched down south of Flutter Rd. and Young Rd., near North Park Community Church. They say it caused large tree limb damage and flattened an extensive area of corn. Sporadic damage continued to the northeast where a pine tree was uprooted at a home on Eby Rd.
They also say a home had minor shingle damage. About a mile away, a wooden swing set was pushed over in a yard on Notestine Rd. In all, the tornado lasted around 7 minutes.
Two EF0 tornadoes have been confirmed from Saturday’s storms (SE Elkhart/NC Allen counties). Survey results here.https://t.co/iAvihuIp7I
— NWS Northern Indiana (@NWSIWX) August 21, 2016
Severe weather also slammed parts of western and southwestern Michigan on Saturday.
National Weather Service meteorologist T.J. Turnage says officials saw “indications of tornadoes on radar, and very good indications they occurred and debris lifted up with them.”
Turnage said parts of Allegan and Kent counties, and the outskirts of Grand Rapids saw some of the worst weather.
Tornado and thunderstorm warnings have been issued, including a tornado warning for a portion of Van Buren County. No injuries have been reported.
Andy Bloos tells The Grand Rapids Press that he could feel his house shaking.
Some power lines trees were knocked down Saturday afternoon. More than 20,000 utility customers in several counties lost power.
The weather service says storms also are expected into Saturday evening across parts of the central Lower Peninsula.
Tornado and thunderstorm warnings have been issued, including one of a portion of Van Buren County.
The National Weather Service also says a single, supercell thunderstorm was responsible for producing six tornadoes in five central Indiana counties last week
It said Friday that the strongest of the six tornadoes on Monday, Aug. 15, was one rated an EF-2 with an estimated peak winds of 115 mph that traveled 3.8 miles near the Boone County town of Whitestown, destroying a pole barn and snapping tree trunks.
It says the storm produced five weaker tornadoes with shorter paths in Hendricks, Hamilton, Tipton and Howard counties. They caused minor damage to farm buildings and trees.
The weather service says two other tornadoes Monday with winds of 95 mph or less traveled short distances northwest of Lafayette and near the town of Avon west of Indianapolis. They caused minor damage.
The Associated Press and Ryan Wrecker/WOWO Radio contributed to this story.
