Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2007
EF1 tornado, Berrien Spgs Arpt, Michigan, April 26, 2007
This EF1 tornado ran 1.2 miles across Berrien County on April 26, 2007, touching down at 7:12 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 of property damage.
The rating scale
Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Enhanced Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.
EF065 to 85 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
EF2111 to 135 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.
EF3136 to 165 mph
Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.
EF4166 to 200 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
EF5over 200 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.
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
- EF1
- Date
- April 26, 2007
- Touchdown
- 7:12 PM EDT (23:12 UTC)
- Lifted
- 7:15 PM EDT (23:15 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.2 miles (2.0 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10,000
- County
- Berrien County
- Touchdown point
- 41.945, -86.396
- Lift-off point
- 41.958, -86.379
- Record number
- 0704261712-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A warm front moving north from central Indiana produced large scale deep ascent on the north side of the front. This led to the development of thunderstorms. A severe storm crossed into Berrien county from La Porte county Indiana, producing a brief tornado.
Emergency managment and National Weather Service officials performed a storm survey in southern Berrien county. A tornado was found to have touched down near the intersection of Shawnee and Garr Roads and moved slowly northeast for just over a mile before lifting near the intersection of Lemon Creek Road and Redbud Trail. Several softwood trees were snapped off along the path with some minor damage occurring to buildings. This damage is consistent with an EF1 rating with maximum winds of 90 mph.
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.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 18:33 UTC and running to 00:40 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 18:33 UTC | 00:40 UTC | Tornado Watch | IWX |
| 21:10 UTC | 21:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | IWX |
| 21:45 UTC | 22:45 UTC | Tornado Warning | IWX |
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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 20:01 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
11.2 hours before the tornado, 258 km from the path. April 26, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -103817 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 569 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 241 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 308 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.7 K/km
Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z
0.8 hours after it, 258 km from the path. April 27, 2007.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -104 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 683 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 34 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 105 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 122 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The surface observations
Benton Harbor (BEH), 20 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21:28 UTC | 62.6 | 57.2 | 110° 8 kt | 1002 | ||
| 21:35 UTC | 62.6 | 55.4 | 120° 6 kt | 15 | 1002 | |
| 21:53 UTC | 62 | 56 | 90° 6 kt | 1002 | HZ | |
| 22:17 UTC | 60.8 | 55.4 | 50° 3 kt | 1002 | VCTS -RA | |
| 22:34 UTC | 60.8 | 57.2 | 0° 0 kt | 1002.7 | TSRA BR | |
| 22:38 UTC | 60.8 | 57.2 | 230° 9 kt | 1003 | +TSRA BR | |
| 22:53 UTC | 55 | 53 | 260° 6 kt | 1003 | TSRA BR | |
| 23:20 UTC | 53.6 | 53.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1002.4 | VCTS RA BR | |
| 23:41 UTC | 55.4 | 53.6 | 70° 5 kt | 1001.7 | -RA BR | |
| 23:50 UTC | 55.4 | 53.6 | 70° 3 kt | 1001.7 | -RA BR | |
| 23:53 UTC | 55 | 54 | 0° 0 kt | 1001.7 | -RA BR | |
| 00:53 UTC | 54 | 53 | 120° 3 kt | 1001.7 | BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 87 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:11 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 2007 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of April 26, 2007
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April 26 | 2:58 PM CDT | EF0 | Will, IL | 3.2 | 5 | $100,000 | ||
| April 26 | 3:50 PM CDT | EF0 | Cumberland, TN | 7.9 | 50 | $20,000 | ||
| April 26 | 4:08 PM CDT | EF1 | LaPorte, IN | 0.5 | 100 | $40,000 | ||
| April 26 | 4:18 PM CDT | EF1 | LaPorte, IN | 0.3 | 450 | 1 | $40,000 | |
| April 26 | 6:55 PM EDT | EF0 | Brown, OH | 0.5 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| April 26 | 7:23 PM EDT | EF1 | Adams, OH | 1.5 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| April 26 | 7:50 PM EDT | EF1 | Fleming, KY | 3.6 | 200 | $100,000 | ||
| April 26 | 7:52 PM EDT | EF1 | Claiborne, TN | 4.6 | 75 | 7 | $425,000 | |
| April 26 | 8:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Pike, OH | 1.0 | 30 | $25,000 | ||
| April 26 | 7:02 PM MDT | EF0 | Arapahoe, CO | 0.1 | 50 |
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.