Tornado, Kalamazoo
- When
- January 18, 5:01 PM EST
- Where
- Kalamazoo County, Richland
- Rating
- F0
- Path length
- 0.1 mi
- Path width
- 10 yd
- Property damage
- $500
- Coordinates
- 42.370, -85.450
Tornado in Michigan, January 18, 1996
Richland resident reported seeing a swirling cloud of debris with loud noise passing between his house and a neighboring house. The wind lifted a 10' by 12' metal storage shed that had been tied with guy wires, carried it over a 4 foot chain link fence, and set it down about 100 feet from its original position.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS GRR wrote it up.
Richland resident reported seeing a swirling cloud of debris with loud noise passing between his house and a neighboring house. The wind lifted a 10' by 12' metal storage shed that had been tied with guy wires, carried it over a 4 foot chain link fence, and set it down about 100 feet from its original position. Contents of the shed, including a lawn tractor, lawn chairs, mower, bikes, and yard tools remained intact and apparently undisturbed.
The radar
The Grand Rapids radar (KGRR), 59 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 21:59 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Cold in Oklahoma, January 18 to 20, 1996
- Blizzard in Iowa, January 18, 1996
- Heavy Snow in Washington, January 18 to 19, 1996
- Cold in Wisconsin, January 18, 1996
- High Wind in Indiana, January 18, 1996
- Flash Flood in Virginia, January 18 to 19, 1996
- Tornado in Missouri, January 18, 1996
- Flash Flood in Virginia, January 18 to 19, 1996
- Flash Flood in New York, January 18, 1996
- High Wind in Alabama, January 18 to 19, 1996
- Tornado in Kentucky, January 18, 1996
- Tornado in Arkansas, January 18, 1996
More
Every storm in Michigan in 1996Every state in 1996This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Michigan, 1996Warnings in Michigan, January 1996
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5540335.