F1 tornado, Tustin, Michigan, August 1, 2002

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.

Rating

F1

Date

August 1, 2002

Touchdown

8:15 PM EDT (00:15 UTC)

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

850 yards (777 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

1

Property damage

$500,000

County

Osceola County

Touchdown point

44.100, -85.450

Lift-off point

44.100, -85.450

Record number

280

A F1 tornado struck Tustin (Osceola county) during the late evening hours of the first of August. The maximum winds were estimated to have peaked at the 100 to 110 m.p.h. range... ranking the tornado as a F1 on the Fujita scale. The tornado traveled from west to east and left a damage path that was 6.5 miles long and about a half mile wide. The storm traveled along 21 mile road passing about one mile north of the center of Tustin. The path of damage began about half a mile west of the intersection of 230th Avenue and 21 Mile Road. From there the tornado intensified and moved east. The worst damage occurred along 21 Mile Road between 220th and 200th Avenues. Numerous trees were snapped off or uprooted and several outbuildings and homes incurred roof damage from the high winds and falling trees. A garage attached to a house was destroyed and a camper was flipped over near the intersection of 21 Mile Road and 200th Avenue. The tornado continued east crossing U.S. 131 and ending between Makinaw trail and 170th Avenue, about two miles northeast of the center of Tustin. Numerous reports of downed trees and power lines were received from across most of southwestern and west central lower Michigan with severe thunderstorms through the late evening hours. One isolated report of three quarters inch hail was received from spotters in New Era (Oceana county).

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:41 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.

Cadillac/Wexford (CAD), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The live radar over the trackEvery 2002 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.