Whitmer's office calls for probe into why weather service didn't issue tornado watch

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office on Sunday called for a federal investigation into why the National Weather Service did not issue a tornado watch before a deadly storm struck southwest Michigan.

“Whitmer's office calls for probe into why weather service didn't issue tornado watch Michigan Gov”

The Detroit News

The office also questioned whether the failure could be attributed to 'the Trump administration's funding cutbacks at the National Weather Service.'

The Detroit News

Whitmer spokeswoman Stacey LaRouche said, 'The National Weather Service exists to monitor conditions and inform Americans of severe weather in their communities,' and called the lack of a tornado watch 'troubling, especially with the loss of life in Michigan.'

LaRouche said the federal government should investigate whether the failure to issue a watch was related to 'federal cuts' and added that tornadoes can be hard to predict.

The News reached out to the White House for comment.

The statement came hours after Whitmer declared a state of emergency in Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties and viewed the devastation from a state police helicopter.

The outbreak of tornadoes is being blamed for four deaths in Cass and Branch counties and multiple injuries.

The article reports 12 injuries around the Union Lake area in Branch County, where three people died in the storm.

The Detroit News

Authorities in Cass County reported a possible tornado touchdown near Conrad Road in Milton Township outside Edwardsburg.

A 12-year-old boy later died from injuries sustained during the storm.

The article does not establish a causal link between funding cutbacks and the lack of a tornado watch, and Whitmer's office asked federal officials to investigate that matter.

Federal weather officials told The News that no tornado watch was issued ahead of the Friday afternoon tornadic storm.

“Whitmer's office calls for probe into why weather service didn't issue tornado watch Michigan Gov”

The Detroit News

Bill Bunting, deputy director of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said forecasters issued outlooks earlier in the day indicating the potential for severe storms and tornadoes in southwest Michigan.

He said they did not issue a tornado watch because the conditions that produced the tornadoes were 'highly localized and difficult to detect in advance.'

Bunting said, 'This was very, very constrained in space and time — a very small area.'

He noted that tornado watches typically cover large regions — often 25,000 to 30,000 square miles — and remain in effect for four to eight hours.

Local National Weather Service offices began sending tornado warnings once reports came in from the Edwardsburg area, Lonnie Fisher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Northern Indiana, told The News.

Additional warnings were issued as the storm moved through the region.

The Detroit News

The article confirms at least three tornadoes Friday afternoon, rated EF0 to EF3.

The strongest, with winds estimated at 150 mph, struck near Union Lake and Union City and killed three people.

An EF2 with peak winds of about 130 mph hit near Three Rivers.

A weaker EF0 with winds around 85 mph occurred in Calhoun County between Tekonsha and Homer.

Bunting said the Storm Prediction Center reviews every major weather event to improve forecasting and called predicting extremely localized storms 'a big challenge.'

Emergency management officials, including Brandon Lewis, Macomb County’s director of emergency management and communications, urged that the lack of a tornado watch be a reminder that 'dangerous weather conditions can pop up at any time.'

The article notes Branch County has tornado sirens in parts of the county but none in the immediate Union Lake area and that the county’s location-based 'Code Red' cellphone alert system was activated during the storm.