Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 1987

F1 tornado, Wayne County, Michigan, June 29, 1987

This F1 tornado ran 1.9 miles across Wayne County on June 29, 1987, touching down at 8:20 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 to $50,000 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 29, 1987
Touchdown
8:20 PM EDT (00:20 UTC)
Path length
1.9 miles (3.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000 to $50,000
County
Wayne County
Touchdown point
42.200, -83.170
Record number
336

The warnings

21 minutes of warning. NWS DTX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:59 UTC, 21 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:44 UTC23:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDTX
22:55 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningDTX
23:36 UTC00:00 UTCTornado WarningDTX
23:59 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningDTX

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:25 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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), 00:00Z

0.3 hours before the tornado, 62 km from the path. June 30, 1987.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1987-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 351 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 1046 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 1987-06-30The 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 90 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 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
351 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
826 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1046 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
90 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
2.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KFNT), 12:00Z

11.7 hours after it, 62 km from the path. June 30, 1987.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1987-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 192 joules per kilogram, CIN -24, lifted condensation level 651 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 1987-06-30The 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 5 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 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
192 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-24 J/kg
Surface CAPE
450 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
651 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
5 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Detroit/Wayne (DTW), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:00 UTC7968250° 14 kt1010.2
23:17 UTC300° 20 kt371010.2
23:58 UTC280° 10 kt1010.5
00:00 UTC6764240° 10 kt1010.8TSRA
01:00 UTC7167250° 17 kt221010.8-SHRA
02:00 UTC7167290° 8 kt1010.8

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1987 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 29, 1987

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 291:20 PM EDTF0Isabella, MI0.420$500 to $5,000
June 291:30 PM EDTF1Clare, MI3.040$5,000 to $50,000
June 291:45 PM MDTF0Jefferson, ID0.110$500 to $5,000
June 293:35 PM CDTF0Ochiltree, TX0.140
June 295:50 PM EDTF0Westmoreland, PA0.520$500 to $5,000
June 294:00 PM MDTF0Bernalillo, NM0.220$500 to $5,000
June 296:40 PM EDTF0Polk, FL2.0301$500 to $5,000
June 297:10 PM EDTF0Belmont, OH6.073$5,000 to $50,000
June 297:20 PM EDTF1Lenawee, MI0.8147$500 to $5,000
June 296:35 PM ESTF0Hendricks, IN0.210
June 298:15 PM EDTF1Washington, PA0.5301$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.