April 4, 2026 Severe Weather and Van Buren Township Tornado

Tornado

The Enhanced Fujita (EF) Scale classifies tornadoes into the following categories:

EF0 Weak 65-85 mph	EF1 Moderate 86-110 mph	EF2 Significant 111-135 mph	EF3 Severe 136-165 mph	EF4 Extreme 166-200 mph	EF5 Catastrophic 200+ mph
Tornadoes that fail to impact any ratable damage indicators on the EF-Scale are rated EF-Unknown (EF-U)

Radar

Storm Reports

Preliminary Local Storm Report...Summary

National Weather Service Detroit/Pontiac MI

..TIME...   ...EVENT...      ...CITY LOCATION...     ...LAT.LON...
..DATE...   ....MAG....      ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
            ..REMARKS..

0945 AM     Flood            Holly                   42.80N  83.62W
04/04/2026                   Oakland            MI   NWS Employee    

            Multiple locations north of Holly Road and Grange Hall 
            Road were flooded and a couple local lakes in the same 
            area were flooding into backyards. 

1110 AM     Flood            1 N Romeo               42.82N  83.01W
04/04/2026                   Macomb             MI   Public          

            A home just north of Romeo reported standing water 
            above a half a foot in their yard that had flooded the 
            ground level of outside stuctures. 

1200 PM     Flood            N Port Sanilac          43.43N  82.55W
04/04/2026                   Sanilac            MI   Public          

            A lot of standing water covering lawns, roads, and 
            other low lying areas from Port Sanilac to Lexington 
            from many ditches, creeks and streams out of their 
            banks. 

0320 PM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     3 NW Lambertville       41.79N  83.66W
04/04/2026                   Monroe             MI   Amateur Radio   

            Numerous trees downed in the vicinity of Piehl Rd, 
            Summerfield Rd, Erie Rd, and St. Anthony Rd. Damage to 
            two homes reported on Piehl Rd. 

0546 PM     Tornado          2 NE Willis             42.18N  83.54W
04/04/2026                   Wayne              MI   NWS Storm Survey

            NWS storm survey confirms an EF-1 tornado occurred in
            Van Buren Twp on April 4. The tornado started just south
            of Martz Rd between Rawsonville Rd and Hoeft Rd,
            continued northeast along Hull Rd, then crossed Sumpter
            Rd and lifted before reaching Savage Rd.

0553 PM     Tstm Wnd Dmg     2 E Belleville          42.21N  83.44W
04/04/2026                   Wayne              MI   Broadcast Media 

            Numerous trees and power lines down near E Huron River 
            Dr and Haggerty Rd. 

&&

CoCoRaHS Observed 5-day Rainfall Reports (March 31 to April 5, 2026)

MRMS 72-hour Rainfall Estimate (Valid 8 AM April 5, 2026)

North Central River Forecast Center 5-Day Accumulated Mean Areal Precipitation (Valid 8 AM April 5, 2026)

Photos

Whiteford Township

Source: NWS Storm Survey	Source: NWS Storm Survey	Source: NWS Storm Survey

Van Buren Township

Source: NWS Storm Survey	Source: NWS Storm Survey	Source: NWS Storm Survey

Environment

It was another highly conditional setup for SE Michigan, with low confidence in surface destabilization. Leading up to the event, the main concern was for damaging winds with a secondary risk of a brief, spin-up tornado if storms interacted with the marine boundary layer. The decision to include Monroe County in Severe Thunderstorm Watch #97 came as a line of thunderstorms over northern Ohio lifted into extreme southeastern Michigan. There was plenty of low level shear in the synoptic environment and backed surface winds near the shoreline, so the question was always about northward progress of the warm front/instability. SPC mesoanalysis (Figure 5) was not overly impressive with the SBCAPE magnitude (< 500 J/kg), but at the end of the day proved to be enough for storm-scale dynamics to overcome.

The first line of storms produced a pocket of straight-line wind damage in southwest Monroe County near Lambertville in Whiteford Township. The line quickly encountered stable air as it moved north of the front/into the marine layer, which prevented more widespread damage. Radar presentation showed a defined wind bubble on the TDWR of nearly 60 knots at 800 feet, while an unbalanced velocity couplet pointed toward straight-line winds as opposed to a tornadic circulation. This was confirmed by a storm survey, noting a divergent pattern to damage consistent with straight-line winds. A second line of storms developed along the cold front, roughly 75 miles behind the leading line. This was another shallow line of storms with minimal lightning activity that was able to take advantage of enhanced streamwise vorticity near the front and marine layer. Tornado Warnings were issued as rotation developed briefly along multiple spots in the line. The strongest area of rotation produced a short-lived EF-1 tornado that tracked northeast through Van Buren Township in Wayne County, near Belleville.

Finally, this event produced minor flooding across southeast Michigan. Numerous River Flood Warnings were issued, in addition to Flood Advisories where 1 to 3 inches of rain (locally up to 4 inches) occurred throughout the day. There were numerous reports of standing water covering lawns, roads, and other low-lying areas. Flash flooding, however, was not observed.

Figure 1: WPC Surface Analysis, valid 18 UTC  April 4, 2026	Figure 2: WPC Surface Analysis, valid 21 UTC  April 4, 2026	Figure 3: WPC Surface Analysis, valid 00 UTC  April 5, 2026
Figure 4: 0-1km SR Helicity, valid 19 UTC April 4, 2026	Figure 5: Surface-based CAPE, valid 19 UTC April 4, 2026	Figure 6: Precipitable Water (PWAT), valid 19 UTC April 4, 2026
Figure 7: DTX Sounding, valid 18 UTC April 4, 2026	Figure 8: DTX Sounding, valid 00 UTC April 4, 2026	Figure 10: SPC Categorical Outlook, valid 1300 UTC April 4, 2026
Figure 11: SPC Probabilistic Damaging Wind Outlook, valid 1300 UTC April 4, 2026	Figure 12: SPC Probabilistic Tornado Outlook, valid 1300 UTC April 4, 2026	Figure 14: SPC Mesoscale Discussion #358, valid April 4, 2026
Figure 15: Severe Thunderstorm Watch #97, valid April 4, 2026