By Zachary Gorchow
President of Michigan Operations
Posted: May 23, 2022 11:08 AM

If you're about 48 or younger, you hadn't experienced the sight of a large, very strong tornado tearing apart a Michigan city, killing multiple people and injuring dozens until Friday when an EF3 tornado struck Gaylord.

Michigan has a pretty gruesome tornado history (more on that in a moment) but it basically ended after the terrible 1980 Kalamazoo tornado when an F3 tornado (this was under the original Fujita Scale not the Enhanced Fujita Scale in place since 2007) tore right through the heart of the city, killing five, injuring 79 and inflicting unbelievable property damage.

Since then, Michigan had only one tornado that killed more than one person (the 2007 Williamston tornado). There were some F3s/EF3s but they either hit mostly undeveloped areas and had limited to minimal casualties (like the Clio tornado of 1997 or the Dexter tornado of 2012). The F2 that slammed Detroit and Highland Park in 1997 injured 90 and inflicted considerable damage but thankfully killed no one. There also is a somewhat forgotten F2 that devastated the small village of Comins in Oscoda County in 1999 but thankfully only injured two.

But as far as a strong tornado inflicting widespread major damage and a large number of casualties, Michigan had dodged that bullet for 42 years until Friday when Gaylord of all places – Otsego County has had just two tornadoes since good records started being kept in 1950 – got hammered.

As tornadoes and weather has long been an interest of mine, I was busy on Twitter following experts on the situation and tweeting out some thoughts on the historical context of this tornado. I assembled a top five of tornadoes since Michigan's last "violent" tornado – a defined term under the Enhanced Fujita Scale that applies to EF4 and EF5 tornadoes – in 1977 when an F4 hit Eaton County.

My order was Kalamazoo 1980, Gaylord 2022, Detroit 1997, Williamston 2007 and Dexter 2012.

But immediately people began asking about the 1953 Flint tornado, mentioning the Palm Sunday Outbreak of 1965, and I decided well this is my blog and it doesn't always have to be government and politics, so let's assess where the Gaylord tornado sits all time on Michigan tornadoes. And for "all-time" purposes, we're starting with 1880 or so since records before that time are almost nonexistent and most of the state was undeveloped swamp during those years.

The short answer is that the Gaylord tornado is definitely in the top 20 but not the top 10. This just underscores how different the tornado history has been in Michigan post-1980.

If we used only tornado strength as a guide, it would be even lower since Michigan has two F5s and 16 F4s on record going back to 1950 (plus another two unofficially rated F5 from before 1950). Ted Fujita invented the F-scale in 1971 and at that point National Weather Service office began using their records and newspaper articles/photos to retroactively assign a rating to tornadoes back to 1950.

But what's worse, an F4 that spins over mostly undeveloped land and leads to few casualties or an F3/EF3 that slams into a developed area and wreaks havoc and hurts/kills people? The answer is obvious. So I tried to take into account strength, casualties, damage and overall historic impact.

1. FLINT/BEECHER, 1953: One of the worst tornado disasters in U.S. history that a panel of Michigan meteorologists voted the most significant weather disaster of the 20th century for the state. The toll: 116 dead and 844 injured as an F5 laid waste to everything along Coldwater Road in the Beecher district just north of Flint.

2. OAKLAND COUNTY TORNADO OF 1896: This is kind of the forgotten tornado in Michigan history but most tornado experts consider it an unofficial F5. It killed 47, injured 100 and wiped the village of Oakwood off the map in northern Oakland County. The photos of the damage are extraordinary. This tornado started to get its due last year with the 125th anniversary.

3. 'TERRIBLE TWOS' OF 1965: The Palm Sunday Outbreak of 1965 hit Michigan hard and the worst blow came with an extraordinary pair of tornadoes that began in Branch County near Kinderhook, one starting not long after the first, and followed almost identical paths into Monroe County. Both tornadoes were retroactively rated F4 and had a combined death toll of 44 and injury count of 587. At least one of the tornadoes was a massive "wedge" where it was incredibly wide.

4. HUDSONVILLE/STANDALE, 1956: The last tornado with an official/unofficial F5 rating in the state began in Zeeland Township in Ottawa County and roared for 48 miles all the way to Trufant in Montcalm County. The prominent tornado historian Thomas Grazulis has cast some doubt on whether it warranted an F5 rating but nonetheless it inflicted major havoc, killing 17 and injuring 292 and is seared into the memories of anyone who lived along its track along the west side of the Grand Rapids region.

5. ANCHOR BAY 1964: A terrible F4 tornado smashed into Chesterfield Township in 1964, killing 11 and injuring 224.

These first five are pretty obvious choices. Then it gets tougher.

6. COMSTOCK PARK PALM SUNDAY TORNADO, 1965: The Palm Sunday Outbreak of 1965 hit Michigan hard with 11 tornadoes, five of them rated F4. One of F4s started near Allendale and moved past Rockford. The path was eerily similar to the 1956 tornado in this area. This one killed five and injured 142. Comstock Park was hardest hit.

7. KALAMAZOO, 1980: Michigan has had several tornadoes rated above this F3 but this tornado's path that took it right through the heart of downtown Kalamazoo meant it inflicted far more destruction than those. Five died and 79 were hurt. Officials estimated damage at the time of $50 million – that would be $175 million today. Some large office buildings had every window blown out.

8. 1905 TORNADO: There's not a ton of information readily available on this tornado that hit Tuscola and Sanilac counties on June 5, but Mr. Grazulis has said it inflicted F5-level damage. Five died and 40 were injured.

9. FLINT TORNADO OF 1956: Just three years after the Beecher area was devastated, an F4 tornado plowed through southeast Flint and Burton. Three died and 116 were injured. The $5 million in damage at the time would be valued at $53 million today.

10. MONROE COUNTY TORNADO OF 1953: The same June 8 outbreak that included the devastating Flint tornado spawned an F4 tornado that spun from Temperance to Erie and then continued over Lake Erie as one of the largest waterspouts on record. Four died and 18 were hurt. There's an amazing photo of the tornado's stovepipe shape near Erie.

11. IOSCO COUNTY TORNADO OF 1953: Another tornado in the June 8, 1953, outbreak, though this one was an F2. It killed a family of four and injured 13 others.

12. PORT HURON TORNADO OF 1953: About three weeks before the June 8 outbreak, an F4 tornado slammed into Port Huron, inflicting heavy damage with two dying and 68 hurt. The tornado then continued across the St. Clair River into Sarnia, Ontario, where five more died. This was a massive tornado estimated at one to one and a half miles wide that stayed on the ground for almost three hours.

13. GAYLORD TORNADO OF 2022: Only the second Michigan tornado with multiple fatalities (two) since 1980, 44 hurt and what will likely be an enormous damage estimate after slamming into the business district on the west side of the city and then roaring into neighborhoods on the northeast side.

14. WEST BLOOMFIELD TORNADO OF 1976: One died and 55 were injured when an F4 tornado tore through central Oakland County, including the busy intersection of Orchard Lake and 15 Mile roads. This tornado led to Oakland County installing an outdoor warning siren system.

15. LOST PENINSULA TORNADO OF 1965: Another violent tornado, this one an F4, from the April 11 Palm Sunday Outbreak inflicted terrible carnage in Toledo, Ohio, killing 16, before catching the extreme southeast corner of Monroe County, known as the Lost Peninsula, where two died and 29 were hurt.

Our best to everyone in Gaylord after this terrible disaster.