44
Recorded events
9
Direct deaths
316
Direct injuries
$44.5M
Property damage
Tornado in Kent County, Michigan: 44 recorded events between 1956 and 2025. The strongest on record measured F5. That places the county #513 nationally and #2 statewide for this hazard.
Decade by decade
Tornado in Kent County, Michigan: events per decade
Reporting practice changed over time — early decades are undercounted, not calmer.
The busiest decade for tornado in Kent County is the 1960s, when 10 of the county's 44 recorded events were logged. Comparing decades is useful for spotting active periods, but the earliest years are thin because systematic reporting for this hazard began later.
Within the Kent County archive, tornado makes up 8.9% of all recorded severe weather across 7 hazard types. Nationally the county sits at #513 for this hazard and #2 within Michigan, putting it in the 82.4 percentile of all U.S. counties.
Seasonality
Events by month
Apr is the peak month for tornado in Kent County with 9 recorded events, while Jan is the quietest. Seasonality here is a property of the archive as much as the climate: reports cluster where population and spotter networks are densest.
Tornado tracks
Paths crossing this county
| Date | Scale | Path length | Max width | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1956-04-03 | EF5 | 58.8 mi | 400 yd | Crossed in |
| 1965-04-11 | EF4 | 20.6 mi | 300 yd | Crossed in |
| 1967-04-21 | EF3 | 13.6 mi | 400 yd | Touched down here |
| 1956-04-03 | EF3 | 60.6 mi | 200 yd | Crossed in |
| 1975-05-20 | EF2 | 2.3 mi | 10 yd | Touched down here |
| 1968-09-09 | EF2 | 1.0 mi | 33 yd | Touched down here |
| 1968-08-05 | EF2 | 52.7 mi | 50 yd | Touched down here |
| 1967-04-21 | EF2 | 0.3 mi | 27 yd | Touched down here |
| 1961-09-22 | EF2 | 2.7 mi | 2,000 yd | Crossed in |
| 2025-05-15 | EF1 | 14.9 mi | 100 yd | Touched down here |
Significant events
Deadliest on record
| Date | Location | Scale | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 11, 1965 | F4 | 5 | 142 | $2.5M | |
| Apr 4, 1956 | F5 | 4 | 130 | $25K | |
| Apr 21, 1967 | F3 | 0 | 32 | $25.0M | |
| Jul 7, 2014 | GRAND RAPIDS SOUTH K | EF1 | 0 | 6 | $4.5M |
| Jul 9, 1987 | F1 | 0 | 2 | $3K | |
| Sep 6, 1989 | F1 | 0 | 1 | $25K | |
| Jul 28, 1976 | F1 | 0 | 1 | $250K | |
| May 21, 1975 | F2 | 0 | 1 | $250K |
Most recent
Latest recorded events
| Date | Location | Magnitude | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|
| May 16, 2025 | DUTTON | EF1 | $0 |
| Mar 30, 2025 | MOSELEY | EF0 | $0 |
| Mar 30, 2025 | ROCKFORD | EF0 | $0 |
| Mar 30, 2025 | KENT CITY | EF1 | $0 |
| Mar 30, 2025 | CORINTH | EF0 | $0 |
| Aug 25, 2023 | WESTGATE | EF1 | $10.0M |
| Jun 26, 2021 | LOWELL | EF0 | $50K |
| Apr 10, 2021 | CORINTH | EF0 | $75K |
| Sep 11, 2019 | GRAND RAPIDS | EF0 | $0 |
| Apr 11, 2017 | BROWNE CENTER | EF1 | $200K |
Other hazards here
More from Kent County
- Thunderstorm Wind 287
- Hail 140
From the record
What the reports say
Written by National Weather Service staff at the time of the event · public domain
A tornado began east of Peach Ridge Avenue and north of 6 Mile Road and moved east northeast for almost 9 miles, ending just west of Rockford High School. Hundreds of trees were snapped or uprooted. Structural damage was done to buildings in the 5600 block of Alpine Avenue and to homes in a subdivision just north of the intersection of 7 Mile Road and Pine Island Drive. Peak wind speeds in this area were estimated to be 110 mph making this an upper end EF-1 tornado.
An NWS storm survey determined that an EF1 tornado developed rapidly near 64th Street and Burlingame Avenue in Byron Center and tracked northeast for 6.25 miles through Wyoming and Kentwood. The tornado, on the ground for about 10 minutes, produced significant damage with estimated wind speeds up to at least 110 mph. Numerous trees, structures, and power lines were downed or damaged along a damage path 300-400 yards wide across southern Kent County. There were six injuries and no fatalities. Sunday night's tornado was the first EF-1 in Kent County since May 21, 2001.
The fourth tornado of the day was an EF-0 in southwestern Kent county. Along the path, hundreds of trees were damaged or knocked over resulting in tens of thousands of power outages. Many homes and a number of vehicles were damaged from fallen trees.||A couple notable locations the tornado moved through include the Wyoming Middle School football field where a set of football field goal posts were bent by soccer goals, and Battjes Park and Prairie Park where a number of trees were damaged or uprooted.
Quick answers
Frequently asked
How many tornado events are on record in Kent County, Michigan?
44 tornado events are recorded in Kent County between 1956 and 2025, causing 9 direct deaths.
What is the strongest tornado recorded in Kent County?
The strongest tornado on record in Kent County measured F5.
Where does the tornado data for Kent County come from?
All events come from the NOAA/NCEI Storm Events Database, the federal public-domain archive of severe weather reports. Dates are UTC, damage is as reported and not inflation-adjusted, and the most recent entries may still be revised.
Cite this page
“Tornado in Kent County, Michigan.” Severe Weather History. severeweatherhistory.com/county/michigan/kent-county/tornado/ · Data: NOAA/NCEI, FEMA, U.S. Census — public domain.