Tornado and Hail in Michigan, July 28, 1999

A weak cold front moved into a warm and humid airmass over southeast Michigan during the afternoon. A passing upper level disturbance added fuel to the fire. A number of severe thunderstorms developed, with the strongest and most concentrated area of activity in the Saginaw Bay and Thumb regions. The counties along the Ohio border also saw severe weather.The first severe thunderstorm of the day was also the most potent. It became a large supercell (a rotating thunderstorm) as it moved southeast across the Thumb. Baseball sized hail was reported in Elmer - the largest hail report in all of southeast Michigan all summer. Sporadic wind damage from this thunderstorm began near Bad Axe, and continued all the way to Port Huron, where the storm moved into Canada. Most of wind damage involved trees and power lines going down. The community of Peck had a picnic table tossed by the wind, and damage to nearby farm fields. In Amador, homes under construction were damaged. A tree was downed onto a home in Ruby, and in nearby Wadhams, a spotter estimated 60 mph winds with the storm.This supercell produced a brief tornado touchdown near Jeddo in northeast St Clair County. A home and garage suffered substantial damage to windows, roofing, and siding. A light trailer was flipped over, and some parked vehicles in the area were moved. Most impressively, a large aluminum rowboat - with attached outboard motor - was blown 20 feet up into a tree. The damage was consistent with winds in the 80 to 90 mph range, making this an F1 tornado.Over the rest of southeast Michigan, severe thunderstorms produced hail up to golfball size, and wind gusts that toppled trees and power lines. The most substantial damage occurred just southwest of the city of Monroe, where roofing was ripped off of a shed, and a barn was deroofed. This occurred along W Albain Road, exactly where damage occurred with the severe thunderstorms of July 21st.