Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 1986

F0 tornado, Ionia County, Michigan, September 26, 1986

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Ionia County on September 26, 1986, touching down at 8:00 AM EDT and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500 to $5,000 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 mphthis tornado

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

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
September 26, 1986
Touchdown
8:00 AM EDT (12:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500 to $5,000
County
Ionia County
Touchdown point
43.000, -84.920
Record number
689

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

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

0.0 hours before the tornado, 125 km from the path. September 26, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1986-09-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2111 joules per kilogram, CIN -20, lifted condensation level 620 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 1986-09-26The 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 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
2111 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-20 J/kg
Surface CAPE
873 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
3.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KFNT), 00:00Z

12.0 hours after it, 125 km from the path. September 27, 1986.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1986-09-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1454 joules per kilogram, CIN -37, lifted condensation level 843 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 1986-09-27The 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 114 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
1454 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-37 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1740 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
843 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
114 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
149 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Lansing (LAN), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
10:00 UTC7269200° 9 kt1016.3
11:00 UTC7369210° 9 kt1016.3
12:00 UTC7369180° 5 kt1015.9
13:00 UTC7370220° 10 kt1016.6-TSRA
13:11 UTC280° 20 kt361019
13:30 UTC330° 12 kt1017.6

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1986 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of September 26, 1986

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 262:45 PM MDTF0Canyon, ID0.510
September 265:18 PM CDTF0Tulsa, OK0.150
September 266:45 PM EDTF0Oakland, MI0.120$500 to $5,000
September 265:50 PM CDTF1Clark, WI0.550$50,000 to $500,000
September 266:00 PM CDTF0Sawyer, WI0.550
September 266:45 PM CDTF2Wagoner, OK8.073$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.