(CBS-DETROIT) – An EF-0 tornado touched down in Holly Sunday evening, the National Weather Service confirmed Monday morning.
The tornado, which traveled an estimated mile and a half and was 150 feet wide at its largest, started at 6:56 p.m. and lasted two minutes.
According to officials, the rare tornado began in November in a wooded swamp area southwest of Holly and continued northeast toward Holly before dissipating east of the village’s center near the intersection of Martha Street and Washington Street. The tornado caused damage to trees and damage to a construction site and several homes. No injuries have been reported.
The NWS estimates that the tornado reached a maximum wind speed of 70 miles per hour. The Enhanced Fujita Scale classifies tornadoes into six categories, ranging from EF-0 to EF-5. An EF-0 tornado reaches a speed of 100 to 130 km/h.
Jackie Hutton’s home suffered significant damage, with gutters and shingles torn from the house, as well as a broken window and a dent in her garage. Hutton’s 130-year-old home also experienced a power surge.
“It started raining, and the wind started, and it picked up, and it couldn’t have been more than… less than 30 seconds. It just continued very quickly,” Hutton said.
Holly American Legion Post 149 also suffered significant damage and the building was deemed unsafe to enter.
“A large portion of the shingles were blown off the roof and a horizontal crack formed in a large portion of the concourse,” the Legion Post said on social media. “For security reasons, it is strictly prohibited to enter the building as we address these structural issues. Although initial observations suggest that strong winds may have lifted the soffit, causing the roof to shift and the mortar joint separating it from the wall to break, this is only early speculation necessary to determine the full extent of the damage. “
Sunday’s spin-up tornado was similar to the deadly EF-1 tornado which landed in Livonia in June. That tornado was 1,300 feet wide, had a path of 5.5 miles, and was also a spin-up. A 3-year-old boy was killed and his mother seriously injured when a tree fell on their house.
“It’s rare, but small tornadoes can emerge within minutes and then die out as quickly as they develop,” said CBS Detroit NEXT Weather meteorologist Troy Bridges. “When fast spin-ups occur, there is very little warning. Sometimes they can form in one or two radar scans and then be gone.”
