F0 tornado, Eaton Rapids, Michigan, June 24, 1998

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.

Rating

F0

Date

June 24, 1998

Touchdown

5:25 PM EDT (21:25 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$10,000

County

Eaton County

Touchdown point

42.520, -84.630

Lift-off point

42.520, -84.630

Record number

1199

Scattered severe thunderstorms developed along and north of a northward moving warm front across southern Lower Michigan during the afternoon of Wednesday, June 24th. This severe weather event was characterized by several large hail reports, with golf-ball sized hail reports received from Kent, Barry, Eaton, Ingham, and Jackson Counties and hail of 2 to 3 inches in diameter associated with a supercell thunderstorm as it tracked east-southeast across southern Ingham and northern Jackson County. This supercell thunderstorm developed over eastern Barry County and tracked across Eaton County, southwest Ingham County, and northern Jackson County. This storm resulted in several wind damage and large hail reports, an F0 tornado in southeast Eaton County, and an F1 tornado touched down in north central Jackson County near Layton Corners. No injuries were reported with the tornadoes, but damage was estimated at half a million dollars across Henrietta and Waterloo Townships in northern Jackson County. The supercell thunderstorm resulted in approximately 12,500 power outages across Eaton and Jackson Counties.

Eaton Rapids Fire Department reported a brief tornado touchdown just east of the city of Eaton Rapids, in a wooded area of northeast Hamlin Township. Eaton County Emergency Management indicated no injuries or structural damage was reported. The tornado touched down in a rural area and path length and width were not able to be determined. Damage amount was estimated and damage directly related to the tornado was limited to downed trees and power lines. The tornado was estimated to be an F0 on the Fujita scale.

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

42 minutes of warning. NWS GRR issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:43 UTC, 42 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:30 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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:20 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 Grand Rapids radar (KGRR), 86 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:25 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

6 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.