Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 1976

F1 tornado, Allegan and Ottawa counties, Michigan, June 15, 1976

This F1 tornado ran 23.3 miles across Allegan and Ottawa counties on June 15, 1976, touching down at 4:45 PM EDT and reaching 67 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $50,000 to $500,000 of property damage.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  1. F040 to 72 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mph

    Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

  4. F3158 to 206 mph

    Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

  5. F4207 to 260 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. F5261 to 318 mph

    Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

  7. Unrated

    The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 15, 1976
Touchdown
4:45 PM EDT (20:45 UTC)
Path length
23.3 miles (37.5 km)
Path width
67 yards (61 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$50,000 to $500,000
Counties
Allegan and Ottawa counties
Touchdown point
42.670, -86.180
Lift-off point
42.880, -85.820
Record number
604

The air that afternoon

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

Detroit, MI (KFNT), 12:00Z

8.8 hours before the tornado, 210 km from the path. June 15, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1976-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 391 joules per kilogram, CIN -130, lifted condensation level 1334 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1976-06-15The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -74 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 13 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
391 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-130 J/kg
Surface CAPE
448 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1334 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-74 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KFNT), 00:00Z

3.2 hours after it, 210 km from the path. June 16, 1976.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1976-06-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 592 joules per kilogram, CIN -25, lifted condensation level 1788 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1976-06-16The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 124 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
592 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-25 J/kg
Surface CAPE
531 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1788 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
124 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1976 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 15, 1976

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 153:00 AM CDTF1Chippewa, WI0.3100$5,000 to $50,000
June 155:30 PM EDTF1Kent, MI0.550$5,000 to $50,000
June 157:30 PM EDTF1Wexford, MI0.1133$5,000 to $50,000
June 157:05 PM CDTF1Stone, AR9.927$500 to $5,000
June 157:40 PM ESTF0Howard, IN1.3801$50,000 to $500,000

What this means

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

Sources

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.