Wild Weather at Ann Arbor Art Fair

July 19, 2007 - Ann Arbor, MI - Artists and thousands of visitors to the Ann Arbor Arts Fairs had to dash for cover Thursday as emergency sirens wailed, signaling a tornado warning issued by the National Weather Service. Radar indicated that a severe thunderstorm at Whitmore Lake, about 12 miles away, was capable of producing a tornado and possibly headed toward the fair. More than 500,000 people are expected to turn out for the five-day event, which features the work of nearly 1,100 artists and covers about 30 blocks of downtown Ann Arbor on the edge of the Univeristy of Michigan's main campus. The severe weather caused little damage and passed quickly, soon permitting the exhibitors to return to business as usual.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• tornado
• warning
• ann
• arbor
• art
• fair
• weather
• storm

[plateshutoverlock]

wait at least 30 minutes after the lightning storm has passed before resuming work

[leonkennedy74]

omg i know, it was crazy, and the guys under the parking structure who are usually awesome, sucked.

[tomgreentwin]

The Art Fair this year was MUCH smaller than last year. The stretch on State Street was half the size of past years.

[Ub3rJ0hn]

Lol, I was there.

[WhatANiceCow]

i live really close to the art fair, my family can walk there, we were there that day and we were walking home and the second we got into our house the sirens went off, it was reallllllllllly creeeeepy.

[jplewis002]

I'm pretty sure there was a tornado with this one, the Bow Echo was well defined in the line of storms.

[pinkorange12]

ha ha ha ha ha ha put youre crap away and go fishing

[denrockshard]

There was NO tornado with this storm, or any in that line in the area that day. One of the cells within the line appeared to have a TVS (tornado vortex signature) as indicated by doppler radar as it approached Whitmore Lake. Five minutes later, it was gone. However, when this type of thing does occur, even for a moment or two, it prompts a tornado warning, until the storm weakens enough to warrant dropping it.

[reibotlove]

The tornado was only 9 miles away. You never know if the tornado was going to switch directions. You should take cover during a storm because you know...lightening isn't  the best thing either.

[reibotlove]

I have a video of when I was just showing up to Ann Arbor that day. We found a parking garage in time at least. I loved how when the siren was going off no one was running. They just kept going about their business.

Thanks for posting that!