Don't Panic Over Michigan's Tornado Season
The state had over twice its average number of twisters in 2025, but severity and deadliness have declined
Williamston — There’s a spot along I-96 in Williamston where a grisly scene took place. Trees uprooted and broken in half, branches scattered everywhere, a small forest turned into a barren field. An EF-2 tornado touched down here in 2023 and tore it all up, upending cars and semi-trucks alike.
More severe tornadoes struck Southeast Michigan last week, and Michiganders are starting to question—is Michigan having more tornadoes than it ever did before?
The Williamston tornado was just one of many over the last few years. An EF-2, a severe tornado, but not nearly the most intense. It was still enough, by one survivor's account, to throw his entire semi-truck and trailer into the air and toss it down the highway embankment.
Two people were killed, a 40-year old Grand Rapids man who swerved to avoid a downed power line and hit a tree, and an 80-year old woman when tree fell on her house.
Apart from some local reporting, it barely made the news.
This year’s tornadoes have been different. A flurry of headlines and internet posts went viral. The tornadoes were indeed severe, with an EF-3 hitting the Union Lake area in March with estimated winds over 160 mph. Three people were killed. Last week’s tornadoes, eight of them confirmed, hit all over Southeast Michigan.
It’s been severe enough for people to start wondering whether Michigan’s tornado problem is getting worse.
The answer is complicated, of course.
One thing is true—2025 was one of the most severe years on record for Michigan tornadoes, with over 33 tornadoes recorded. That’s the third most ever recorded in a year.
With 13 confirmed tornadoes so far this year, and it still being early in the season, Michigan could again be on a record-setting pace. It does, indeed, seem like tornado season is getting worse every year.
Yet when you dig into the data, the answer isn’t quite so clear.
Since the 1950s, Michigan has averaged roughly 15 confirmed tornadoes per year. Last year definitely exceeded that, and this year seems on track to do so as well.
The overall trend for total number of tornadoes, however, shifts rapidly from year to year, and decade to decade. Some years blast through the average, other years fall way short. Statistically speaking, there’s simply too much variance to discern any overall trend.
One trend, however, is easily discernible. The number of severe tornadoes, EF-2 or higher, has declined dramatically since the 1970s.
Going back to the 1950s through the 70s, there was a much higher frequency of severe tornadoes per year than anything Michigan has seen in the 21st century so far.
The ‘70s in particular were the worst decade on record for Michigan tornadoes, both for overall numbers and for the most severe. The Super Tornado Outbreak of April 1974 stands as particularly infamous, with hundreds of tornadoes touching down within a two-day period across the Midwest.
The ‘50s, however, were by far the deadliest when it comes to Michigan tornadoes. Tornadoes claimed the lives of 151 Michiganders across the decade, a number unlike anything in decades since.
The overall trend seems to be, if there is one—roughly the same number of tornadoes, but fewer severe ones, and fewer deadly ones. Despite this year’s outbreaks, Michiganders need not panic.
The most startling thing about tornadoes, of course, is how quickly and suddenly they emerge, and just the same, how fast they disappear. The ominous green skies clear, the clouds dissipate, and all that’s left is the damage.
The loss of lives is the greatest tragedy. Buildings, though, can be rebuilt. Power lines raised back up, highways repaved.
Trees grow back too, with younger ones taking their place. That spot along the highway in Williamston, still barren in 2024 after the prior year’s tornado, has become more green the past few years. New growth emerged, latching onto the stumps and branches of the fallen trees.
Give it another few years, and it will be a forest again just like it was before. Mother nature can be cruel, but she sure is resilient. So are Michiganders, in the end.
So when you hear the sirens, take caution and hunker down—but trust that in the end, everything will work out fine.
