EF1 tornado, Belleville Arpt to Belleville, Michigan, April 4, 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 4, 2026

Touchdown

5:46 PM EDT (21:46 UTC)

Lifted

5:50 PM EDT (21:50 UTC)

On the ground

4 minutes

Path length

3.3 miles (5.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Wayne County

Touchdown point

42.181, -83.532

Lift-off point

42.201, -83.475

Highest wind the damage implies

100 mph

Surveyed by

NWS DTX

The office's name for it

Van Buren Twp

Survey last edited

April 9, 2026

Record number

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

The tornado started just south of Martz Rd between Rawsonville and Hoeft Rd. It first flipped a hayride trailer and continued northeast toward Hull Rd. EF-1 damage occurred along Hull Rd with the greatest concentration of EF-1 damage along and just south of Hull Rd between Elwell Rd and Bak Rd. This damage included multiple trees uprooted and snapped, telephone poles snapped, and a large barn wall blown out. The tornado continued northeast crossing Sumpter Rd producing EF-0 damage with scattered large tree limbs and power lines downed. The tornado lifted right before reaching Savage Rd.

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

9 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DTX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Video of tornado flipped tracker trailer.
• Damage to a small shed with outer walls blown out. Not very structurally sound.
• Cluster of trees uprooted.
• Several power poles snapped with convergent damage to the trees across within the image. Foreground trees pointing north and background trees to the southeast.

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

A cold front moved across Southeast Michigan during the late afternoon and early evening of April 4. This triggered two lines of thunderstorms that caused pockets of damage south of I-94. The most significant storm occurred in Wayne County, producing an EF-1 tornado in Van Buren Township. The system also dumped 1 to 3 inches of rain, with some areas seeing up to 4 inches. Because the region had already received 3 to 5 inches over the previous five days, these additional downpours caused the Tittabawassee, Clinton, and Flint rivers to overflow. In addition, significant localized flooding occurred on already saturated ground, with the hardest-hit area being northwest Oakland County, specifically in and around Holly.

The tornado first touched down just south of Martz Road, between |Rawsonville Road and Hoeft Road. At its onset, it flipped a hayride trailer before continuing its northeast path toward Hull Road. The most concentrated EF-1 damage was found along and just south of Hull Road, specifically between Elwell Road and Bak Road. Maximum estimated winds of 100 mph. In this area, surveyors observed multiple uprooted and snapped hardwood and pine trees, several snapped telephone poles, and a large barn that sustained significant damage, including a wall being completely blown out. The tornado continued northeast, crossing Sumpter Road where it downed power lines and several large tree limbs. The circulation lifted shortly after, just before reaching Savage Road on the western edge of Belleville.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:00 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.

The Detroit radar (KDTX), 57 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:46 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

3 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.