COLDWATER, MI (WTVB) – It was a scary night of wild weather in Branch County and the surrounding area complete with tornado sirens, heavy rain, large hail and strong winds.
The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for Branch County shortly before 10:00 p.m.Tuesday night due to severe thunderstorms that forecasters said were capable of producing a tornado and straight line winds were located along a line extending from Union City to Bronson to near Sturgis. The storms were moving to the east at 40 miles an hour. Radar at the time also indicated rotation.
But the storms which prompted the warning weakened below severe limits and the warning was allowed to expire at 10:30pm.
No tornado touchdowns were reported.
More strong storms moved through after midnight. The Branch County Memorial Airport recorded a wind gust of 43 MPH at 2:15 a.m. this morning.
There were numerous reports of large hail. A National Weather Service observer in Camden reported 1.5 inch hail.
Branch County Road Commission crews had to be called in to remove fallen trees.
As of 4:00 a.m., 186 Consumers Energy customers in Branch County were without power mostly in the Union City and Sherwood areas while another 1,178 customers in Calhoun County were in the dark. Most of the Calhoun County outages were near Marshall.
