Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2008

EF0 tornado, Masonville, Michigan, July 25, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Delta County on July 25, 2008, touching down at 5:15 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.

  1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. 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.

  4. 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.

  5. EF4166 to 200 mph

    Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

  6. 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.

  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
EF0
Date
July 25, 2008
Touchdown
5:15 PM EDT (21:15 UTC)
Lifted
5:16 PM EDT (21:16 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.1 miles (0.1 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Delta County
Touchdown point
45.910, -86.980
Lift-off point
45.910, -86.980
Record number
0807251515-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moving into a warm and humid airmass spawned severe thunderstorms over portions of west and central Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 25th. A weak tornado also caused some damage near Rapid River in Delta County.

An NWS storm survey found a 50-yard wide by 150-yard long EF0-rated tornado track near the intersection of Bayshore Drive and 26th Road. The tornado uprooted large trees, drove a sheet of plywood through a motorhome and tore off a portion of a trailer roof.

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.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 18:20 UTC and running to 01:16 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:20 UTC01:16 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchMQT
21:38 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningMQT

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. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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.

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z

9.3 hours before the tornado, 182 km from the path. July 25, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2008-07-25Temperature 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 -84003, lifted condensation level 1146 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2008-07-25The 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 73 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-84003 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1146 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
73 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
115 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

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z

2.7 hours after it, 182 km from the path. July 26, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2008-07-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 940 joules per kilogram, CIN -17, lifted condensation level 769 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2008-07-26The 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 35 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
940 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-17 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1081 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
769 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Escanaba (ESC), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
19:15 UTC7766.2190° 13 kt211010.5
19:35 UTC75.266.2200° 14 kt211010.2
19:55 UTC7766.2200° 17 kt231010.2
20:15 UTC75.266.2190° 14 kt201010.2
20:35 UTC75.266.2190° 12 kt191009.8
20:55 UTC75.266.2190° 11 kt1010.2
21:15 UTC7766.2250° 16 kt201010.2VCTS
21:35 UTC69.860.8310° 19 kt311011.2TS
21:55 UTC64.460.8300° 14 kt231011.9VCTS
22:15 UTC64.460.8290° 9 kt141012.5VCTS
22:35 UTC64.460.8330° 5 kt1011.5
22:55 UTC64.460.8330° 4 kt1010.8

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

The radar

The Marquette radar (KMQT), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:14 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.

What was reported nearby

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

Time (UTC)ReportWhereCountyRemark
21:15 UTCTORNADO1 Sw Rapid RiverDelta, MIPOSSIBLE TORNADO ACCORDING TO TWO PUBLIC REPORTS. TORNADO LASTED A FEW MINUTES. UPROOTED LARGE TREES...PLYWOOD WENT THROUGH A MOTORHOME AND PORTION STILL STUCK IN THE MOTORHOME...PORTION OF A TRAILER ROOF RIPPED OFF.
21:23 UTCTSTM WND GST 50GladstoneDelta, MIA FEW BRANCHES DOWN
21:25 UTCTSTM WND GST 503 E GladstoneDelta, MISEVERAL 1 TO 2 INCH DIAMETER TREE LIMBS DOWN.
21:45 UTCTSTM WND DMGGarden CornersDelta, MI18 TO 20 INCH DIAMETER SPRUCE TREE DOWN AND A 10 INCH DIAMETER CEDAR TREE DOWN.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2008 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

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.