METRO DETROIT (WWJ) - Residents across several communities in Southeast Michigan are left to clean up Friday morning after a round of severe weather brought up to 60 mph winds, quarter sized hail and a suspected tornado the night before.
Senior Meteorologist Steve Considine with the Weather Service Office in White Lake told WWJ's Mike Bowman that they're sending a team to Monroe County to survey extensive damage from Thursday's storm.
Considine said the storm bore down especially hard on Frenchtown Township. where a tornado touchdown was highly likely.
"Based on our radar and the damage reports, we're fairly certain that it was a tornado and... we'll have a team that goes down there and they assess the damage," Considine said. "We find where the damage started, where it ended or in this case, it may have just went right out into Lake Erie."
The team will also take a look into the type of damage that was caused to get a better idea of the projected strength the suspected tornado was.
Residents in the Woodland Beach Association in Monroe County told WDIV that all appeared quiet late Thursday afternoon before a powerful cell blew through and howling winds snapped trees, bringing them down on houses and cars.
A pickup truck and a Jeep were reportedly smashed by a large oak tree that came crashing down. Residents said it also smashed through a home and blew the chimney off.
At 6:13 p.m., the NWS issued a Tornado Warning for the area including Detroit Beach, Woodland Beach and Stony Point until 6:30 p.m.
Earlier in the day, weather experts warned Michiganders of the threat for severe storms which were forecasted to strike the area between 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Bad weather was predicted to affect communities mainly south of the M-59 corridor and meteorologists said the storms were capable of packing wind gusts up to 60 mph and hail to one inch in diameter -- all accompanied by frequent lightning strikes.
Ominous clouds began to darken skies above Livingston County around 4:30 p.m. on Thursday. Thirty minutes later, once sunny weather quickly turned into a hail storm.
Troopers with Michigan State Police posted photos to social media showing damage to their squad cards in Howell where the hood, roof and truck had been pelted by large hailstones.
Bentley Lake Farms, also located in Howell, took to Facebook to say the hailstorm completely wiped out their crops.
"Our farm along with a few other surrounding Farms, unfortunately suffered a natural disaster this evening that maybe a lot of you have not even heard about because it was just a small pocket that our farm unfortunately was the center of."
"Our entire Fields have been completely wiped out, and we will have to start rebuilding tomorrow," the post continued. "We are not giving up and our season will continue but it's going to look a little bit different this year but we are going to persevere and continue on with 2023 the best we can."
The farm added that they had made it through Michigan's historic dry spell, event performing a "rain dance" when the skies finally opened up bringing much needed water to fields and crops. But the rain came at a cost.
"Farming is a Gamble and we understand that but we never could have expected this to happen," they wrote. "This has never happened in our farming career and have only heard of things like this. We ask that you please support us and our other local farmers who are also impacted by this unfortunate turn of events. We had hoped for rain because we desperately needed it, and was doing a happy dance when it started to pour.. but then the hail came and it was an immediate feeling of happiness to devastation."
The farm said that their u-pick season for strawberries, which began just two days ago on Wednesday, June 14, is officially over.
"I want to thank every single one of you who have supported our farm," the post said. "All of your kind words and support in our farm whether you tell us on here or in person or to any of our wonderful people who work with us on the farm- I just want you to know it means the world to us and now more than ever we will need your support."