(WWJ) We've got one confirmed tornado, another inconclusive.
That's the word from the National Weather Service following reports of two twisters — including a possible tornado in West Michigan, near Lawrence in Van Buren County Wednesday night.
NWS Meteorologist T.J. Turnage said they did investigate damage left behind following storms and high winds that hit the area, but could not confirm a tornado touchdown.
"One of our meteorologists went down there to check it out, and he wasn't able to find anything conclusive," Turnage told WWJ Newsradio 950's Greg Bowman. "So it's just one of those things where you can't absolutely say it didn't happen, but you can't absolutely say that it did happen either."
What did the investigator find?
"There was some minor tree damage in the area," Turnage said, "I think there was a barn...you know, an old barn that had maybe had a little it bit of its roof slightly peeled back, you know. But all of this stuff could be explained by winds that were greater than 60 miles an hour, but probably not much more than that."
Investigators with the NWS Northern Indiana, however, said Thursday evening they had confirmed an EF-1 tornado touched down Wednesday in a second location near Colon, just north of the Indiana border.
Storm chasers reported seeing funnel cloud in the area, but officials had been unable to say whether it touched down until later in the day.
The tornado was on the ground for 2.92 miles with a peak estimated wind speed of 90 MPH. The max width was 50 yards.
"A tornado quickly developed almost directly over a storage facility on the east side of Colon. Garage doors were blown in and then a significant loss of roof decking and metal covering occurred," a report from the NWS said. "This wood and metal debris was lofted, twisted, and deposited both to the east and north up to 200 yards away in nearby fields."
Officials said there was also "sporadic tree damage" in the area.
Storm pulls roof off building near Colon
MLive posted video showing a roof torn off a storage building on E. State Street in Colon.
No injuries were reported.
This storm system prompted a Tornado Watch for Metro Detroit overnight, and across most of the southern region of the Lower Peninsula.
Before the storms blew into Michigan, a confirmed tornado touched down near Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport around 7 p.m.. Passengers there were forced to take cover, and hundreds of flights were canceled or delayed.
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