Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2001

F1 tornado, Gladwin, Michigan, June 9, 2001

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Gladwin County on June 9, 2001, touching down at 6:35 PM EDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $90,000 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 9, 2001
Touchdown
6:35 PM EDT (22:35 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$90,000
County
Gladwin County
Touchdown point
44.070, -84.480
Lift-off point
44.050, -84.400
Record number
1010

What the Weather Service recorded

During the late afternoon hours of June 9th, a small cluster of thunderstorms developed along a lake breeze boundary near the city of Cheboygan. This cluster of storms continued to move southeast along the lake breeze boundary before moving into Lake Huron near Harrisville. These storms dropped large amounts of hail that covered the ground to an inch or two at times.A more widespread area of thunderstorms developed further south, affecting Gladwin, Iosco and Ogemaw counties. These storms also produced considerable amounts of hail. A tornado was reported about 6 miles north of the town of Gladwin and moved east to 6 miles northeast of town, damaging six structures and destroying one. There were also numerous trees downed. The tornado remained in Gladwin County through its entire life cycle, with three individual touchdowns noted.

Tornado damaged several buildings and numerous trees.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:47 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningAPX

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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

10.6 hours before the tornado, 170 km from the path. June 9, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2001-06-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -88, lifted condensation level 2009 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 2001-06-09The 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 36 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-88 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2009 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
36 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
28 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 170 km from the path. June 10, 2001.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2001-06-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 37 joules per kilogram, CIN -23, lifted condensation level 1975 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 2001-06-10The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 48 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
37 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-23 J/kg
Surface CAPE
57 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1975 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
48 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
58 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Houghton Lake (HTL), 38 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:55 UTC6959180° 5 kt1012.5-TSRA
21:21 UTC69.857.2190° 7 kt1012.5
21:55 UTC7158190° 10 kt1011.9TS
22:19 UTC69.857.2180° 9 kt1011.5
22:36 UTC71.657.2180° 7 kt1011.2TS
22:55 UTC73580° 0 kt1011.5TS
23:15 UTC69.859120° 4 kt1011.5
23:55 UTC7058100° 4 kt1011.5

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

The radar

The NCL Michigan radar (KAPX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:35 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 2001 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 9, 2001

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 93:15 PM EDTF0Union, SC0.50
June 92:12 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.150
June 92:14 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.150
June 92:32 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO5.0880
June 93:10 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.150
June 94:18 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.150
June 96:26 PM EDTF0Alpena, MI0.310
June 94:35 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.51,320
June 94:50 PM MDTF0Weston, WY0.5102
June 97:10 PM CDTF1Emmons, ND10.0601
June 910:01 PM CDTF0McPherson, NE5.0880$3,000
June 910:26 PM CDTF0Brule, SD0.150
June 911:40 PM CDTF0Miner, SD0.150
June 911:58 PM CDTF0McCook, SD0.150
June 912:14 AM CDTF0McCook, SD0.150
June 912:40 AM CDTF0Brookings, SD0.150

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.