Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2003

F1 tornado, Akron, Michigan, November 12, 2003

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Tuscola County on November 12, 2003, touching down at 5:05 PM EST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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
November 12, 2003
Touchdown
5:05 PM EST (22:05 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Tuscola County
Touchdown point
43.570, -83.550
Lift-off point
43.570, -83.550
Record number
675

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front ahead of a rapidly deepening low pressure system tracked across the area late in the evening on the 12th. Temperatures soared into the lower 60s during the afternoon hours, creating enough instability to tap the very strong winds aloft. A nearly thunderless line of showers ahead of the cold front produced widespread 60 mph winds or greater, along with the one tornado and hail report.

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed a tornado touched down near the intersection of Kirk and Akron Roads. Grain bins along Kirk and Cass City roads were destroyed. A barn near Ringle and Dickerson roads was also damaged just before the tornado lifted. In addition, a trailer house was a moved over eight feet and a shed was damaged. The tornado also brought down tree limbs and power lines.

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.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:29 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

10.1 hours before the tornado, 95 km from the path. November 12, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2003-11-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -30165, lifted condensation level 1748 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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 2003-11-12The 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 85 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 70 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-30165 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1748 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
70 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
85 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
182 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

1.9 hours after it, 95 km from the path. November 13, 2003.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2003-11-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 146 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 1222 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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 2003-11-13The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 117 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 km3 km6 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
146 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
154 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1222 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
117 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
46 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Saginaw/Browne (HYX), 29 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:14 UTC55.450180° 6 kt999.3HZ
20:34 UTC57.251.8170° 8 kt998.6HZ
20:54 UTC55.450190° 8 kt998.6HZ
21:14 UTC55.450170° 8 kt998HZ
21:37 UTC55.451.8180° 10 kt997.3BR
21:54 UTC55.450220° 16 kt19997.3
22:14 UTC55.448.2230° 13 kt18997.3
22:36 UTC55.444.6240° 19 kt24997.3
22:54 UTC55.444.6230° 17 kt27996.6
23:14 UTC55.444.6240° 14 kt19996.6
23:34 UTC55.444.6240° 10 kt22996.3
23:56 UTC53.641260° 18 kt31995.9-RA

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

The radar

The Detroit radar (KDTX), 97 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:02 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 2003 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of November 12, 2003

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 127:00 PM ESTF2Wayne, OH12.01253$21 million
November 127:50 PM ESTF1Stark, OH3.550$250,000
November 128:00 PM ESTF2Tuscarawas, OH3.51751$160,000

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.