March 8, 2026Updated March 9, 2026, 1:19 a.m. ET
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s office on Sunday called for a federal investigation into why no tornado watch was issued before a deadly storm struck southwest Michigan.
Whitmer’s office questioned whether the lack of a tornado watch alert could be attributed to the Trump administration’s funding cutbacks at 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 comment.
The statement from Whitmer’s office came hours after she declared a state of emergency in Branch, Cass and St. Joseph counties and viewed the devastation from a state police helicopter.
The outbreak of tornadoes is being blamed on four deaths in Cass and Branch counties and multiple injuries, including 12 reported around the Union Lake area in Branch County, where three people died in the storm.
On Saturday, federal weather officials told The News that no tornado watch was issued ahead 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., said forecasters issued outlooks earlier in the day indicating the potential for severe storms and tornadoes in southwest Michigan. But a tornado watch was not issued because the conditions that produced the tornadoes were highly localized and difficult to detect in advance.
“This was very, very constrained in space and time — a very small area,” Bunting said.
Tornado watches typically cover large regions — often 25,000 to 30,000 square miles — and remain in effect for four to eight hours, he said.
Edwardsburg weather prompted alerts
Local National Weather Service offices, which issue tornado warnings, began sending alerts once reports of a tornado came in from the Edwardsburg area, according to Lonnie Fisher, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Northern Indiana. Additional warnings were issued as the storm moved through the region.
An EF1 tornado touched down at 3:11 p.m. Friday northwest of the intersection of Runkle Street and Conrad Road, destroying an attached garage and damaging a home where a 12-year-old boy was killed, officials said. The twister reached top winds of 95 mph.
Three other tornadoes were confirmed Friday afternoon, ranging from EF0 to EF3 in intensity. The strongest tornado, with winds estimated at 150 mph, struck near Union Lake and Union City, killing three people. Another tornado rated EF2 with peak winds of about 130 mph hit near Three Rivers, while a weaker EF0 tornado with winds around 85 mph occurred in Calhoun County between Tekonsha and Homer.
Bunting said the Storm Prediction Center reviews every major weather event to improve forecasting, but noted the challenge of predicting extremely localized storms.
“It’s a big challenge … to forecast these extremely localized events,” he said.
‘Dangerous weather conditions can pop up at any time’
Emergency management officials said the lack of a tornado watch should serve as a reminder that severe weather can develop quickly.
“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,” said Brandon Lewis, Macomb County’s director of emergency management and communications.
Officials in Branch County also noted that while tornado sirens exist in parts of the county, none are located in the immediate Union Lake area. The county uses a location-based “Code Red” alert system that sends warnings to cellphones, and officials said that system was activated during the storm.