Did You Hear The Tornado Siren Last Night In Grand Rapids?

Grand Rapids had some pretty wild weather last night. As someone who absolutely loves a good storm (the smell and sound of the rain, the rolling thunder, the beauty of the lightning), I loved everything the storm was giving, especially since for me the weather never got "bad" and I could just enjoy it.

That is, until around 9:30 pm when something that I originally thought was thunder ended up getting louder and going for much longer than thunder. That was when I realized it was the tornado siren. However, I was confused because there was no tornado warning issued.

Like everyone else these days when any sort of weather event happens, I take to social media to see if other people are as confuzzled as I am, and I was happy to see I was not alone.

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According to the National Weather Service, a tornado warning was issued for Middleville in Barry County. The reason Kent County/Grand Rapids had its siren go off was due to the odd shape of the area included in the warning. It covered a small portion of Barry County, Allegan County, and Kent County, which led to the siren being turned on.

Chief Meteorologist George Lessens with 13 On Your Side says that Kent County being included in the tornado warning was likely a mistake, leading to the warning only lasting three minutes. It's better for the alarm to go off for something minor than not to go off for something major.

It was a very Michigan night considering that for three minutes last night, we were under a tornado warning and a freeze warning on a day when the high was 63°F.