LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — As debris is getting cleaned up and removed, 6 News has answers to questions some viewers have been asking.
First, Thursday night’s storm did generate an F2 tornado with winds of 125 mph. The funnel cloud cut a path about 12 miles through Ingham County after forming just outside Williamston. It was about 500 yards wide, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids.
The tornado went directly onto I-96, then dropped south of the interstate as it traveled its path.
This tornado is the only one identified in Ingham County so far, according to the National Weather Service in Grand Rapids. But there were others in metro Detroit.
It started at about 9:29 p.m., and existed Ingham County at 9:40 p.m. It spent two more minutes on the ground in Livingston County.
The storm left one 40-year-man from the Grand Rapids area dead. He was discovered in his car on the side of the highway.
While the storm was hitting hard, it may have appeared like an enormous amount of water dropped in the area, but that’s not the case says 6 News Chief Meteorologist David Young.
“Although it rained extremely hard, totals weren’t too bad. Lansing had .87 inch,” he says. “The heaviest rain totals were between 1 and 2 inches.”
While it wasn’t a lot of water, it was how quickly it came down that leaves an impression there was more rain than there actually was.
“It was the rain rate which was extreme,” Young says. “At times, the rates were as much as 3 inches per hour.”
