Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2008

EF0 tornado, Dover, Michigan, July 30, 2008

This EF0 tornado ran 0.4 miles across Clare County on July 30, 2008, touching down at 3:17 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 30, 2008
Touchdown
3:17 AM EDT (07:17 UTC)
Lifted
3:18 AM EDT (07:18 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.4 miles (0.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Clare County
Touchdown point
43.860, -84.770
Lift-off point
43.860, -84.770
Record number
0807300117-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak and short lived EF-0 tornado struck Clare county.

A National Weather Service storm survey confirmed that a small and brief tornado touched down in Clare county early in the morning of July 30. The tornado was rated an EF-0 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale with maximum winds estimated at 80 mph. ||The tornado occurred about three miles north of Clare at 3:17 a.m. A |barn collapsed and the roof of a carport was blown into a stand of trees. Several other trees were either snapped off or uprooted. ||The tornado touched down just northwest of the intersection of South Clare Avenue and East Surrey Road and traveled east northeast about 2,000 feet before lifting. The width of the tornado was only 50 yards and it was on the ground for only about a minute.

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 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), 00:00Z

7.3 hours before the tornado, 167 km from the path. July 30, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2008-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 287 joules per kilogram, CIN -99, lifted condensation level 1498 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, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2008-07-30The 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 25 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
287 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-99 J/kg
Surface CAPE
587 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1498 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
6 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
25 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
6.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z

4.7 hours after it, 167 km from the path. July 30, 2008.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2008-07-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1215 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 693 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, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2008-07-30The 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 60 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1215 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
438 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
693 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
60 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
16 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mount Pleasant (MOP), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
05:36 UTC73.459160° 4 kt1007.5
05:55 UTC73.459170° 4 kt1007.1
06:16 UTC73.459160° 3 kt1006.8
06:36 UTC73.460.8170° 4 kt1006.8
06:55 UTC73.460.80° 0 kt1006.4
07:16 UTC71.662.6350° 5 kt1007.1-RA
07:36 UTC71.662.6360° 12 kt161007.8RA
07:55 UTC6866.2150° 6 kt1006.8-RA
08:16 UTC6866.210° 5 kt161007.1+RA
08:36 UTC6866.20° 0 kt1006.4-RA
08:55 UTC6866.2190° 4 kt1006.1
09:16 UTC6868200° 4 kt1005.8

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

The radar

The NCL Michigan radar (KAPX), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:15 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
07:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 N ClareClare, MIA BARN WAS BLOWN DOWN AND A CARPORT ROOF BLOWN OFF. ONE LARGE WILLOW TREE WAS UPROOTED. DAMAGE PATH IS ABOUT 30 YARDS WIDE AND ONE HALF MILE LONG. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR DATA.
07:17 UTCTORNADO 03 N ClareClare, MIEF-0 TORNADO. A BARN WAS BLOWN DOWN AND A CARPORT ROOF BLOWN OFF. ONE LARGE WILLOW TREE WAS UPROOTED. SEVERAL OTHER TREES WERE SNAPPED OFF OR UPROOTED. DAMAGE PATH IS ABOUT 50 YARDS WIDE AND 2000 FEET LONG. TIME WAS ADJU
09:00 UTCTSTM WND GST 48AlmaGratiot, MIMEASURED BY SPOTTER IN ALMA. ALSO REPORTED PEA SIZE HAIL.

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

The other tornadoes of July 30, 2008

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 304:35 PM CDTEF0Fayette, PA to WV, MD7.9150$605,000

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.