Editor’s note: This is an excerpt from a story about the worst severe weather events in Michigan. You can read that story here.
Meteorologists used the term “tornado outbreak” to describe the spawning of multiple tornadoes across an area. It 1956, it happened in Michigan. Eyewitness accounts describe April 3, 1956, as an unusually warm, humid and harrowing day.
One account mentions their experience near Grand Rapids:
“That day there was a funny color to the sky, kind of green and orange mixed together. I remember commenting on the color as the neighbor and I were playing on the front porch at his house. We lived in Standale, on Kinney Road,” described resident Pat Higgins-Spangeberg.
Water in the clouds is the reason for the color change happening prior to these storms. The exact color is dependent on the angle light is passing through them, and if the water is solid or liquid. A green color is a good indicator that there is large hail in the storm.
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The group that Pat was with was preparing for a card night when they heard news of the tornado.
“It was around 6:30 p.m. when on the TV Frank Slaymaker, the weatherman, broke in to the program and announced that there was a tornado coming towards Standale, and everyone should take shelter immediately,” Pat said.
The house they were in had no basement, so the group decided to run to the general store up the street for shelter.
“We could see the funnel cloud coming straight towards us. The tail was moving back and forth and everything in its path was being sucked up into it. The tail never left the ground. Electrical lines were sparking as the tornado took them,” Pat said.
“As we were crossing the parking lot, the stores across the street were being sucked into the tornado. We ran into the store and down in the basement just as the tornado hit. The sound was deafening,” Pat said, comparing it to several diesel trains passing just over your head.
“The tornado ripped the store off the foundation, leaving the floor above us. It sounded eerie as the nails were being ripped away. Then the tornado was passed us. There was no air to breathe for a few minutes as it had been sucked away with the tornado. It was so quiet you could hear a pin drop,” Pat said.
The 21 people huddled in the basement of the general store all made it out okay.
The weather on that day had winds from the south that brought humidity and record-breaking high temperatures. Muskegon and Grand Rapids had highs in the upper 70s, and Holland and Kalamazoo both saw 80-degree days. A strong cold front approaching from the west created a band of severe thunderstorms where the warm and cool air met in Wisconsin and Illinois.
The storms crossed Lake Michigan, and by late afternoon when they hit the west coast of Lower Michigan, they instantly generated tornadoes. In three hours, at least four powerful tornadoes spawned, twisting their way through the state. When it ended, almost 20 people were dead and hundreds more were injured.
Unprecedented damage stretched from Saugatuck to Traverse City, and inland in Middleville and Rockford.
