Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 1996

F0 tornado, Ottawa Lake, Michigan, April 12, 1996

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Monroe County on April 12, 1996, touching down at 4:57 PM EDT and reaching 15 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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
April 12, 1996
Touchdown
4:57 PM EDT (20:57 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
15 yards (14 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Monroe County
Touchdown point
41.770, -83.750
Lift-off point
41.770, -83.750
Record number
121

The warnings

12 minutes of warning. NWS DTX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:45 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:32 UTC21:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningDTX
20:45 UTC21:30 UTCTornado WarningDTX
23:41 UTC00:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm 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 06:07 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 (KDTX), 12:00Z

9.0 hours before the tornado, 109 km from the path. April 12, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1996-04-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -28864, lifted condensation level 1032 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1996-04-12The 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 144 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-28864 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1032 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
144 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
146 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

3.0 hours after it, 109 km from the path. April 13, 1996.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1996-04-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -18922, lifted condensation level 504 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 1996-04-13The 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 221 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 68 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18922 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
504 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
68 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
221 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
303 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
1.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Toledo (TOL), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:00 UTC7541230° 9 kt1002.7
20:00 UTC7641200° 9 kt1002
21:00 UTC6446330° 24 kt321003.7
22:00 UTC544360° 17 kt1003.4DZ

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

The radar

The Detroit radar (KDTX), 106 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:58 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 1996 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 12, 1996

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 125:50 PM EDTF0Erie, OH0.320
April 127:41 PM CDTF0Bell, TX0.120
April 127:46 PM CDTF2Bell, TX1.0250$60,000
April 129:10 PM CDTF0Limestone, TX0.120
April 1210:00 PM CDTF0Beauregard Parish, LA0.110$10,000

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.