Illustration by Tabi Walters
As the sky spasmed with lightning in the early hours of April 15, smartphones throughout Washtenaw County shrieked: TORNADO WARNING. Mournful wails could be heard outside, even above the thunder and bullet-hail of rain. Ann Arbor’s twenty-two outdoor warning sirens were sounding an emergency for the first time since the bow echo thunderstorm in July 2023.
“We had significant clearing during the afternoon, allowing a lot of instability, or ‘storm fuel’ to develop,” writes Alex Melendez, a forecaster for Michigan Storm Chasers, in an email to the Observer. “We also had a lot of wind shear, which is the rapid change of wind speed and direction with height. This allowed the storms to rotate sufficiently for the tornadoes, along with damaging winds.”
A common myth among Ann Arborites holds that the city sits in a valley that shelters it from tornadoes. According to Melendez, this is not the case. “There is no doubt that terrain and land surfaces affect tornadoes, but tornadoes have gone up valleys, down valleys, up and down hills all across the U.S.,” he writes. “There was similar advice about tornadoes crossing rivers, and that myth was tragically busted several times in the past.”
According to the National Weather Service, winds from the EF-1 tornado that night peaked at 110 per hour. Touching down near I-94 and Jackson Ave., it caused extensive damage to Bethlehem Cemetery, crossed the highway and continued southeast, ripping off part of the east wall of Vets Park ice rink. It then roared through the West Side, uprooting trees and snapping light poles. Passing over Virginia Park and crossing W. Liberty, it dissipated near the intersection of W. William and Fourth St., leaving the latter blocked in both directions by fallen trees and a section of roof from a nearby building. The remaining winds were still strong enough to send a section of Yost Ice Arena’s roof plummeting to the sidewalk below. Despite the widespread damage, no injuries were reported.
According to Melendez, the last significant tornado to hit Ann Arbor was also an EF-1, on April 3, 1988.
Only a month prior, the City of Ann Arbor had proposed mothballing the decades-old sirens in favor of smartphone emergency alerts and the City’s own opt-in alert system, A2 Emergency Alerts (which has 8,555 users, according to a city spokesperson). On a city website inviting feedback on the proposal, the Office of Emergency Management cited the cost of maintaining the sirens, the infrequency of their use, and that, on their own, they convey no information beyond “danger.”
But after the storm, some Reddit users reported getting phone alerts late, or not at all. Others noted that users will not receive alerts if the phone is off, on Airplane Mode, connected to a VPN, or without service. And not everyone owns a smartphone.
“While most people have some type of mobile device, the usage and capabilities of those devices vary vastly across age, income, and other demographics,” notes U-M environmental justice professor Tony Reames. “As our experiences with extreme weather and storms increase and intensify, local governments should identify more, and not less, ways to notify residents.”
In the end, the City had heard residents’ concerns loud and clear—long before the wind started blowing. “We planned on making the announcement on Monday [April 20] with the release of the Administrator’s budget, but so folks know now, after public input, we are going to continue to maintain our siren system,” wrote Mayor Christopher Taylor on his Facebook page on the morning of April 15.