User:ChessEric/Tornado outbreak of October 23–25, 2001

A total of 28 tornadoes touched down during a large outbreak across the Great Lakes and Mississippi Valley.

Meteorological synopsis
The outbreak was caused by an extremely deep low pressure system that was detected as early as Saturday, October 20 moving in on the coast of California. The Storm Prediction Center was already predicting a chance of thunderstorms on Wednesday. The area forecast discussion started mentioning a "severe potential" on Tuesday, also mentioning "severe storms with large hail and damaging winds possible". By the morning of October 24, the SPC was on its highest alert after issuing a high risk for severe weather for Indiana, middle Kentucky, eastern Illinois, southern Michigan, and western Ohio. The surrounding area was in a slight risk. At 5:00 am, a severe weather outlook was issued highlighting the fact that the area was under a high risk as well as a possibility of tornadoes. By 11:30 am, the SPC issued a Public Severe Weather Outlook calling for "intense tornadoes" in the area. Just 15 minutes later, the SPC issued a Particularly Dangerous Situation Tornado Watch for northern Indiana, and northwestern Ohio.

At around 12:30 pm, a line of storms began forming in central and eastern Illinois and moved east. The town of Monticello, Illinois was struck by an F2 tornado, where homes and businesses were severely damaged. At around 3:12 pm, a tornado warning was issued for LaPorte County. This tornado killed a 50-year-old woman when her modular home was swept away near LaPorte. At 3:15 pm, another tornado watch was issued for southern Michigan.

At 3:46 pm, another tornado warning was issued for St. Joseph County, Indiana and southeastern Berrien County, Michigan and Cass County. A few minutes later, the strongest of the outbreak, rated F3, touched down and did major damage to buildings in Crumstown, a town near South Bend. The line moved into South Bend at exactly 4:05 pm, producing 89 mph winds at the airport. The tornado that hit Crumstown later hit Niles in Berrien County, then moved east-northeast into Cass County and dissipated in northwestern Saint Joseph County, Michigan. Two people were injured by the Crumstown tornado, and one man later died of his injuries. The storms prompted tornado warnings in Kalamazoo and Calhoun counties, and skies reportedly turned very green as the storms approached. The storms caused major damage to the Schoolcraft area of Kalamazoo County, where straight line winds in excess of 120 mph reported, causing a golf dome to blow away, ripping the roof off a house, ripping the front wall of a brick house off and twisting irrigation sprinkler systems. Strong winds were also reported in the City of Kalamazoo. In Calhoun County, strong straight line winds also struck near Tekonsha, causing damage.

Other weaker tornadoes touched down in Mishawaka and moved northeast into Elkhart County. In Elkhart County, one of two separate tornadoes hit a Toll Road Maintenance Building and the other briefly touched down in the Cobus Green Trailer Court to the south-doing some damage to a few trailers. Another tornado damaged a trailer and a house in Marshall County and moved east into Kosciusko County and dissipated in Noble County. This particular tornado was photographed by meteorologists as it came near their forecast office in North Webster. Prior to the photo being taken, the tornado hit a factory on the north side of Warsaw, Indiana.

Later in the evening, the severe storms produced strong straight line winds through the campus of Michigan State University downing many trees and damaging buildings. The National Weather Service estimates most of the downbursts through East Lansing were between 60 - 80 mph, with one gust reaching 120 mph. The supercell that passed through East Lansing also spawned two tornadoes in the Saginaw area. By 5:30 pm, the severe weather moved out of Indiana and into Ohio where damage was not as severe. One tornado was reported in Ohio, an F3 tornado that moved from Paulding County into Putnam County. That tornado caused major structural damage to buildings near Fort Jennings, Ohio. The severity of the activity began to wane later that evening. By 7:30 pm, all severe weather watches were discontinued.