DETROIT – Detroit broke or tied its record high temperature for three straight days; Tuesday, November 3, through Thursday, November 5, 2015. On the morning of Friday November 6, a cold front brought cooler conditions. Before it did, it marked its cooler transition with a line of showers and thunderstorms that contained three tornadoes to Michigan's thumb tip and Southeast Michigan. No injuries or casualties were reported, but plenty of property damage was.
Here is a timeline of what happened, blow by blow. The information stems from witness accounts and data gathered by the National Weather Service Forecast Office based in White Lake, Michigan.
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6:46 am ET, Friday, November 6, 2015: Tornado #1
Twenty-three minutes before sunrise, the first of three tornadoes form and strike Bad Axe, Michigan, in Huron County. The twister was an EF-0 with a peak wind speed of 85 mph. It was on the ground for only a minute, but in that time it traveled over a half a mile bending the steel-reinforced I-beam supports of two billboards and partially peeling the roof off a building. It formed just south of M-53 and Barrie Road and traveled along M-53 until it disappeared over M-53 and Western Avenue, west of Bad Axe.
7:13am ET, Friday, November 6, 2015: Tornado #2
Just a moments after sunrise, the strongest of the three tornadoes descended from the cloud base six and a half miles west-southwest of Applegate, in Sanilac County, and would stay on the ground for the longest amount of time committing the most damage. This was an EF-1 tornado with a 90 mph peak wind carving a 3.6 mile-long damage path 150 yards wide. Within that destructive area, a mobile home's roof and two walls were destroyed near the corner of Marlette and Ruth Roads, three "small barns" were decimated and there was tremendous tree damage. This occurred east of Marlette Road from the interesection of Marlette and Loeding Roads to the northeast corner of Marlette and Tubbs Roads.
7:20am, Friday, November 6, 2015: Tornado #3
Dawn's final tornado ripped through St. Clair County for eight tenths of a mile east-northeast of Yale, Michigan. A quarter mile east of Kilgore and Jeddo Roads is where the tornado began. The twister dissipated on the eastern side of Jeddo and Duce Roads. Three outhouses were obliterated, part of a roof of a fourth outhouse was torn away. Five to ten trees were uprooted or broken, and two telephone poles were snapped.
November's first full week was an eventful one for Southern Lower Michigan. Mother Nature bestowed the feeling of summer then punctuated the return to autumn with severe weather. Fortunately no one was hurt or perished, but everyone was reminded by the nature's joy and wrath in the blink of any eye.