Labor Day Tornadoes Strike Michigan and Kansas

By Nick Wiltgen
Published: September 1,2014


 
Some residents of the Midwest will be laboring to clean up damage after severe storms struck parts of the Plains and Midwest on Labor Day, spawning at least two confirmed tornadoes and possibly several more.

Twisters Confirmed in Michigan

The National Weather Service in Gaylord, Michigan, confirmed two EF1 tornadoes in their area of responsibility Monday afternoon. The twisters struck rural areas of Kalkaska and Otsego counties, uprooting hardwood and softwood trees and tossing them onto houses.
No injuries were reported in the Michigan tornadoes, which struck northeast of Kalkaska and southwest of Johannesburg, respectively. Local emergency management said three people were trapped in an Otsego County house at one point immediately after one of the storms, but they were not hurt.

Storms Batter Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri

Thunderstorms exploded across portions of southern Kansas, northern Oklahoma, and western and central Missouri early Monday evening. Some of the storms were large, rotating thunderstorms called supercells.
(MORE: How Tornadoes Form)
One of these supercells produced a tornado near Cedar Vale, Kansas around 8:20 p.m. CDT. Cedar Vale is near the Oklahoma border, about 65 miles southeast of Wichita, Kansas.
In addition, hail up to the size of baseballs was reported just across the state line in Craig County of northeast Oklahoma from a separate storm.
As of 9:45 p.m. CDT, there were no reports of structural damage from the storms in Kansas and Oklahoma. However, there were several reports of downed trees, tree limbs, and power lines in various locations near the Kansas-Oklahoma border east of Interstate 35.
Severe thunderstorms also struck Missouri Monday evening, prompting numerous warnings. No significant damage was reported as of late Monday evening.

East Coast Storms

Spotty, disorganized severe thunderstorms bubbled up over parts of the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast Monday, causing spotty tree damage in parts of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
One tree fell on a car in Crawford County, Georgia. There have been no reports of injuries from the East Coast storms.