Tornado in Michigan, August 26, 1999

It seemed like an rather normal weather day in southeast Michigan. Scattered light rain showers were occurring in the Saginaw Valley and Thumb regions, thanks to somewhat cooler air aloft and just a touch of daytime heating.Chief Meteorologist Mark Torregrossa of Channel 5 out of Saginaw was in Reese that afternoon. He was doing the weather forecast live on location, as part of the weekly "Weather Garden" segment. While Mark was on-the-air live, a snake-like funnel cloud developed behind him - to the point where a viewer at home could see it, while Mark could not. The cameraman saw it, though, and directed Mark's attention to it. The funnel persisted for 13 minutes, and made a very brief touchdown in a bean field, doing no damage. This was rated an F0 tornado - the weakest rating on the Fujita scale. It probably did not produce winds to even 50 mph.A few other funnel clouds appeared in the region during the afternoon, with no other touchdowns observed. The origins of the tornado are difficult to pin down, since weather conditions were not particularly suited to either cold air funnels, or landspouts. Land-lake temperatures were relatively close, implying that lake breezes were probably not a contributing factor.