EF1 tornado, Coldwater Lake, Michigan, April 14, 2026

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating, as surveyed

EF1, preliminary

Date

April 14, 2026

Touchdown

1:04 AM EDT (05:04 UTC)

Lifted

1:07 AM EDT (05:07 UTC)

On the ground

3 minutes

Path length

2.6 miles (4.2 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Branch County

Touchdown point

41.897, -84.990

Lift-off point

41.885, -84.942

Highest wind the damage implies

90 mph

Surveyed by

NWS IWX

The office's name for it

Coldwater, MI

Survey last edited

April 17, 2026

Record number

None yet. SPC numbers 2026 in the spring of 2027.

A survey of damage south of Coldwater Michigan indicates that a circulation may have attempted to touch down on Sanford Rd, north of Fenn Road where a barn suffered damage with debris thrown to the east, impacting portions of a solar farm with some damage to panels. A few tree tops showed some minor damage from Sanford Rd to near Interstate 69 where it appears the circulation touched down at a business on the southeast side of the Interstate, causing damage to a pole barn on the property. It continued southeast causing tree damage until reaching the area of Dubendorf and Quimby Road where a garage lost its roof, trees were blown down and vinyl fencing around a pool was blown down. The tornado then impacted a pole barn on South Wood Rd, throwing the debris well east into the field before lifting. Maximum wind speeds were estimated in the 85 to 90 mph range.

Written by NWS IWX in the NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit. A survey is revised as better evidence arrives.

1 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 85 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

An area of thunderstorm moves across far southern Lower Michigan during the early morning hours of April 15th. A brief tornado has been confirmed south of Coldwater, MI with details outlined below. We wish to thank Branch County Emergency Management for their assistance with this survey.

A survey of damage south of Coldwater Michigan indicates that a circulation may have attempted to touch down on Sanford Rd, north of Fenn Road where a barn suffered damage with debris thrown to the east, impacting portions of a solar farm with some damage to panels. A few tree tops showed some minor damage from Sanford Rd|to near Interstate 69 where it appears the circulation finally touched down at a business on the southeast side of the Interstate, causing damage to a pole barn on the property. It continued southeast causing tree damage until reaching the area of|Dubendorf and Quimby Road where a garage lost its roof, trees were blown down and vinyl fencing around a pool was blown down. The tornado then impacted a pole barn on South Wood Rd, throwing the debris well east into the field before lifting. Maximum wind speeds were estimated in the 85 to 90 mph range.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

2 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:02 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 05:15 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 00:54 UTC and running to 05:48 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles, in the hatched area where significant tornadoes were expected. The outlook in force was issued at 00:54 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Coldwater (OEB), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 85 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 05:02 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2026 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

24 more have been surveyed in the United States that day, so far.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. A survey can be revised, so the rating, the path and the casualties can all still change.

NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit, the record the survey teams file from the damage, and NOAA Storm Prediction Center storm reports. Neither is the official database for 2026, which SPC publishes in the spring of 2027.