EF1 tornado, Edwardsburg to Williamsville, Michigan, March 6, 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

March 6, 2026

Touchdown

3:09 PM EST (20:09 UTC)

Lifted

3:35 PM EST (20:35 UTC)

On the ground

26 minutes

Path length

13.4 miles (21.6 km)

Path width

350 yards (320 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

0

County

Cass County

Touchdown point

41.810, -86.113

Lift-off point

41.866, -85.864

Highest wind the damage implies

95 mph

Surveyed by

NWS IWX

The office's name for it

Edwardsburg_MI

Survey last edited

March 9, 2026

Record number

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

A disorganized circulation touched down northwest of the intersection of Runkle St and Conrad Rd, destroying an attached garage and damaging the front of a home. One fatality, a 12 year old boy, was confirmed at the home. The tornado continued northeast, causing damage to mainly trees with some minor roof damage as it moved across Yankee St, east of Dailey Rd. The tornado then widen and intensified with the peak damage occurring along Harris St, between Hess Rd and M-62 where numerous trees were snapped or uprooted. Some damage to pole barns and homes (mainly roofs) was noted. The tornado crossed M-62 and continued northeast, crossing portions of Oil City Rd and Monette St to Curtis, Day and Chain Lakes before lifting just east of the intersection of South and Walnut Rd.

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

47 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS IWX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF2. The highest wind the damage implies is 130 mph.

• Menards. NW wall collapsed inward, roof completely gone. Wind might have entered from roof removal on SW corner, lifted roof + wall system on NW corner, allowing wall to fall inward. Could not access SW side of building. photos suggest wall (but lower quality wall) collapsed with roof removed in that corner too
• Entire 1 sections of uhaul storage facility destroyed. Video shows entire structure lifted off the ground intact. Straight nailed from bottom sill plate
• Multiple large trees with trump snapped ~ halfway up
• Attached garage destroyed. Anchored but toe nailed

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

On the afternoon of March 6th, 2026, a lone supercell developed in La Porte County, IN and tracked northeast into Lower Michigan. The supercell moved through Cass, St Joseph, Branch, and Calhoun counties. NWS storm damage surveys from NWS Northern Indiana and NWS Grand Rapids found that the parent supercell spawned 4 tornadoes across Lower Michigan, ranging from EF-0 to EF-3 intensity. There were numerous reports called in to our office and videos posted on social media by storm chasers, broadcast media, trained spotters, and the public confirming tornado damage in Edwardsburg, Three Rivers, and Union City. The north side of Union Lake in Union City was one of the hardest hit areas with numerous homes taking on significant damage and trees sheared off. Several businesses in the city of Three Rivers also sustained notable damage. Unfortunately, there were multiple fatalities and injuries across Lower Michigan.

A disorganized circulation touched down northwest of the|intersection of Runkle St and Conrad Rd, destroying an attached|garage, and destroying the center part of the home (back windows failed and resulted in front of house blowing out). One fatality, a 12 year|old boy, was confirmed at the home as he was located in the attached garage at the time. A female resident was also injured. The tornado continued|northeast, causing damage to mainly trees with some minor roof|damage as it moved across Yankee St, east of Dailey Rd. The|tornado then widen and intensified with the peak damage occurring|along Harris St, between Hess Rd and M-62 where numerous trees|were snapped or uprooted. Some damage to pole barns and homes|(mainly roofs) was noted. The tornado crossed M-62 and continued|northeast, crossing portions of Oil City Rd and Monette St to|Curtis, Day and Chain Lakes before lifting just east of the|intersection of South and Walnut Rd.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:45 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.

Elkhart Municipa (EKM), 13 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), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:11 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

15 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.