March 8, 2026Updated March 9, 2026, 1:19 a.m. ET
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office on Sunday referred to as for a federal investigation into why no tornado watch was issued earlier than a lethal storm struck southwest Michigan.
Whitmer’s office questioned whether or not the shortage of a tornado watch alert might be attributed to the Trump administration’s funding cutbacks on the National Weather Service.
“The National Weather Service exists to monitor conditions and inform Americans of severe weather in their communities. The fact that the (National Weather) Service did not issue a tornado watch is troubling, especially with the loss of life in Michigan,” Whitmer spokeswoman Stacey LaRouche said in a statement. “While tornadoes can be hard to predict, the federal government should investigate whether the failure to issue a watch was related to federal cuts.”
The Detroit News has reached out to the White House for remark.
The assertion from Whitmer’s office got here hours after she declared a state of emergency in Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties and seen the devastation from a state police helicopter.
The outbreak of tornadoes is being blamed on four deaths in Cass and Branch counties and a number of accidents, together with 12 reported across the Union Lake space in Branch County, the place three individuals died within the storm.
On Saturday, federal weather officers instructed The News that no tornado watch was issued forward of the tornadic storm that struck the state Friday afternoon.
Bill Bunting, deputy director of the National Weather Service’s Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., mentioned forecasters issued outlooks earlier within the day indicating the potential for extreme storms and tornadoes in southwest Michigan. But a tornado watch was not issued as a result of the circumstances that produced the tornadoes have been extremely localized and tough to detect prematurely.
“This was very, very constrained in space and time — a very small area,” Bunting mentioned.
Tornado watches usually cowl massive areas — usually 25,000 to 30,000 sq. miles — and stay in impact for 4 to eight hours, he mentioned.
Edwardsburg weather prompted alerts
Local National Weather Service places of work, which issue tornado warnings, started sending alerts as soon as experiences of a tornado got here in from the Edwardsburg space, in response to Lonnie Fisher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Northern Indiana. Additional warnings have been issued because the storm moved by way of the area.
An EF1 tornado touched down at 3:11 p.m. Friday northwest of the intersection of Runkle Street and Conrad Road, destroying an connected storage and damaging a house the place a 12-year-old boy was killed, officers mentioned. The tornado reached high winds of 95 mph.
Three different tornadoes have been confirmed Friday afternoon, starting from EF0 to EF3 in depth. The strongest tornado, with winds estimated at 150 mph, struck close to Union Lake and Union City, killing three individuals. Another tornado rated EF2 with peak winds of about 130 mph hit close to Three Rivers, whereas a weaker EF0 tornado with winds round 85 mph occurred in Calhoun County between Tekonsha and Homer.
Bunting mentioned the Storm Prediction Center critiques each main weather occasion to enhance forecasting, however famous the problem of predicting extraordinarily localized storms.
“It’s a big challenge … to forecast these extremely localized events,” he mentioned.
‘Dangerous weather circumstances can pop up at any time’
Emergency administration officers mentioned the shortage of a tornado watch ought to function a reminder that extreme weather can develop rapidly.
“I think that’s just a really good reminder that even if there’s not a watch product in place from the National Weather Service, if there’s severe weather, dangerous weather conditions can pop up at any time,” mentioned Brandon Lewis, Macomb County’s director of emergency administration and communications.
Officials in Branch County additionally famous that whereas tornado sirens exist in elements of the county, none are positioned within the quick Union Lake space. The county makes use of a location-based “Code Red” alert system that sends warnings to cellphones, and officers mentioned that system was activated in the course of the storm.
