SHERWOOD, MI (WTVB) – The National Weather Service has confirmed that a EF2 tornado caused a considerable amount of damage in the Sherwood area Tuesday evening with estimated winds of up to 130 mph.
A survey team along with emergency management officials from Branch and St. Joseph Counties assessed the track of the storm on Wednesday and Thursday.
The NWS says the twister was on the ground for a half hour and had a path of over 19 miles. The maximum width was 950 yards. One person was injured according to the weather service.
It touched down at 5:41 p.m. on the south side of Centreville. The tornado tracked northeast, passing north of Colon and crossing into Branch County near Havens and Goodrich Lake.
The tornado finally weakened and lifted back into the clouds at 6:11 p.m. south of Union Lake about three miles southwest of Union City.
Extensive damage took place to trees and center pivot irrigation systems along the track with the most significant damage from north of Colon to north of Sherwood. Several homes suffered loss of roofs and walls, resulting in the area of highest damage consistent with EF2 and estimated winds of 130 mph.
According to the NWS, video footage and layout of some tree damage confirms this was a multi vortex tornado during its peak intensity.
Meanwhile, a brief secondary tornado developed at Union Lake just after 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday evening as the larger tornado dissipated northwest. It was labeled as a EF-1 tornado with top speeds of 95 mph. It was on the ground for about a minute. Its path was a mile long with a maximum width of 100 yards. There was some evidence of larger rear flank downdraft wind damage in between tracks and just north and east of Union Lake.
In all, there were four confirmed tornados. A strong EF-2 twister hit Portage while an EF-1 tornado hit Dowagiac and Twin Lakes in Cass County.
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