F2 tornado, Midland, Michigan, May 31, 1999

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

May 31, 1999

Touchdown

6:38 PM EDT (22:38 UTC)

Path length

1.8 miles (2.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Midland County

Touchdown point

43.650, -84.230

Lift-off point

43.670, -84.200

Record number

358

Warm, moist air blanketed lower Michigan, as a low pressure system moved slowly north along a nearly stationary cold front in Wisconsin. A number of showers and thunderstorms developed in the warm sector. There was only one severe weather event, but that unfortunately was a strong tornado that hit the north side of the city of Midland.Touchdown occurred at an apartment complex on the west side of Eastman Avenue (which is the US-10 business loop into downtown Midland). Power lines and trees were downed on both sides of Eastman Avenue, although little damage was done to structures. The tornado strengthened as it moved northeast across Woodpark Drive, uprooting trees, blowing out windows, and removing rain gutters and siding. Some trees were downed onto nearby homes. The tornado reached its maximum intensity as it crossed Wackerly Road. It struck a Holiday Inn Convention Center, located between Wackerly Road and the US-10 freeway. The roof of the convention center was blown off, with some debris blown across the freeway. An air conditioner from the roof was tossed onto a nearby parked car. Several doors to the convention center were blown out. A trash can from the hotel area was blown onto US-10, where it struck a car.The tornado weakened as it crossed the US-10 freeway. It moved through the parking lot of a Target store, at the southeast corner of Midland Mall. An outdoor shopping cart holder was thrown into a nearby field, and several trees were destroyed. As the tornado continued northeast, it downed a pair of large trees midway between a nursery and a WalMart.Toward the end of its path, the tornado struck a church on Jefferson Avenue, just south of Letts Road. Large limbs were downed here, and siding was torn off some of the church buildings. A youth center under construction was partially deroofed.This tornado tied for the strongest to strike Midland County since 1950. The only previous F2 tornado occurred on April 14 1974. The May 31 1999 tornado was the first tornado of any strength to hit Midland County since June 17 1992.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:06 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 Detroit radar (KDTX), 123 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:38 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 1999 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

21 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.