F1 tornado, Harbor Beach, Michigan, June 13, 2004

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

June 13, 2004

Touchdown

6:00 PM EDT (22:00 UTC)

Path length

2.0 miles (3.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Huron County

Touchdown point

43.830, -82.720

Lift-off point

43.830, -82.670

Record number

1282

The front that moved through our area on Wednesday June 9th maintained its identity and began to move north as a warm front during the afternoon of the 13th. The first cell of the day became a long-lived supercell. This storm moved through the Midland and Bay City areas, over the south end of Saginaw Bay, and into Huron county before moving out over the open waters of Lake Huron. Later in the afternoon and during the evening a nearly solid line of storms developed along a north-south surface trough over western lower Michigan. These storms developed bowing characteristics as they moved into southeast Michigan and generated some straight-line wind damage. The Midland Fire Department called out two extra crews to answer about 30 storm-related calls of downed wires, broken utility poles and fallen trees. At least two trees crashed into homes.

A tornado tracked near Rapson Road from Minden to Klug Roads. Widespread tree damage was reported, along with minor property damage. One property alone along Rapson Road lost 44 trees, many of which were more than 100 years old and very large. Outbuildings were moved off their foundations, with a portion of a metal roof on a barn torn off.

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 Moderate Risk, with a 0.15 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:58 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), 141 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:57 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2004 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

12 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.