F2 tornado, Niles to Dunlap, Michigan, August 25, 1998

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 mph

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

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F2

Date

August 25, 1998

Touchdown

1:00 AM CDT (06:00 UTC)

Path length

26.0 miles (41.8 km)

Path width

300 yards (274 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$2.1 million

Counties

Berrien, Cass and Elkhart counties

Touchdown point

41.830, -86.250

Lift-off point

41.720, -85.820

Record number

1267

EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO TREES ACROSS THE CITY WHICH BLOCKED 15 SEPARATE STREETS AT ONE TIME. 60 HOMES DAMAGED SUSTAINED MINOR TO SEVERE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. MANY VEHICLES WERE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED BY FALLEN TREES AND LIMBS. SEVERAL POWER POLES AND LINES TAKEN OUT. THE FRENCH PAPER COMPANY LOST ROOFS ON THREE DIFFERENT BUILDINGS AS DID THE D&D TIRE COMPANY WHICH HAD ITS WAREHOUSE ROOF RIPPED OFF. DEMOND GROCERY STORE LOST 20K DOLLARS WORTH OF PERISHABLE FOOD ITEMS DUE TO THE EXTENDED EXTENSIVE POWER OUTAGE THAT AFFECTED 41,500 PEOPLE AT ONE POINT. ONE MAN LOST 21 LARGE TREES IN HIS YARD ALONE. THE MICHIGAN STATE GOVERNOR DECLARED THE CITY OF NILES A DISASTER AREA. AN OFF DUTY MICHIGAN STATE POLICE OFFICER TRAGICALLY LOST HIS LIFE WHEN HE WAS ELECTROCUTED BY A DOWNED POWER LINE.

ONE MOBILE HOME WAS COMPLETELY DEMOLISHED ON SOUTH SIDE OF JUNO LAKE AND SEVERAL OTHER HOMES AROUND JUNO, PAINTER, EAGLE AND CHRISTAN LAKE SUFFERED MINOR TO MODERATE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE. AN RV WAS TOSSED ABOUT AND ROTATED 180 DEGREES WHICH CAUSED MAJOR DAMAGE. NUMEROUS TREES WERE COMPLETELY FLATTENED WHICH ALSO CAUSED DAMAGE TO HOMES. MANY ROADS WERE BLOCKED BY FALLEN TREES...SNAPPED POWER POLES AND DOWNED POWER LINES.THIS TORNADO BEGAN IN NILES AND PEAKED IN INTENSITY AND WIDTH 3 MILES NORTHWEST OF EDWARDSBURG WHERE IT WIDENED OUT TO ONE HALF MILE. IT CONTINUED ON TOWARD THE TOWN OF BRISTOL IN NORTHEAST ELKHART COUNTY BEFORE LIFTING.

THE TORNADO HAD WEAKENED AS IT PASSED JUST EAST OF ADAMSVILLE. IT STILL CAUSED EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO SEVERAL FARMS ALONG AND PRIMARILY SOUTH OF HIGHWAY 12.SEVERAL HOMES AND VEHICLES SUSTAINED MAJOR DAMAGE DUE TO FALLEN TREES.

THIS TORNADO LIKELY FORMED ALONG THE LEADING EDGE OF THE BOW ECHO WHICH PASSED THROUGH BERRIEN AND ST. JOSEPH COUNTIES EARLIER. IT TOUCHED DOWN ON TOP OF THE FORD DEALERSHIP ALONG HIGHWAY 33 TEARING OFF A LARGE PART OF THE ROOF AND ONE WALL. NEXT IT THREW A FORD AEROSTAR VAN INTO A POWER POLE AND PICKED UP AN RV TOSSING IT OVER 50 YARDS AWAY ACROSS THE HIGHWAY INTO A DITCH. NEXT IT CROSSED A STREET AND HIT A MANUFACTURED HOME DEALERSHIP SHIFTING SEVERAL HOMES OFF THEIR FOUNDATIONS, TEARING A LARGE PART OF THE OFFICE ROOF OFF AND FLIPPING A MOVING VAN OVER. IT THEN PROCEEDED DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 33 FOR APPROXIMATELY ANOTHER 200 YARDS TEARING OFF PARTS OF ROOFS AND AIR CONDITIONING UNITS BEFORE LIFTING.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

13 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 05:47 UTC, 13 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:35 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:00 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 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.

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 54 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:01 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

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