Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2010
EF1 tornado, Willow, Michigan, June 27, 2010
This EF1 tornado ran 1.4 miles across Wayne County on June 27, 2010, touching down at 2:31 PM EDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $500,000 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
- June 27, 2010
- Touchdown
- 2:31 PM EDT (18:31 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:34 PM EDT (18:34 UTC)
- On the ground
- 3 minutes
- Path length
- 1.4 miles (2.2 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $500,000
- County
- Wayne County
- Touchdown point
- 42.115, -83.413
- Lift-off point
- 42.123, -83.389
- Record number
- 1006271231-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A warm front lifting north through southeast Michigan spawned three tornadoes. Outside of the tornadoes, just a few isolated reports of thunderstorm wind damage.
A tornado touched down just southeast of Clark and Willow roads. |EF1 damage with winds estimated up to 105 mph were noted along Waltz road and just to the east. Damage included multiple homes with roof damage and two destroyed garages. The tornado ended just east of Rust rd. |The total path length was 1.4 miles from southwest to northeast. |The tornado was 200 yards wide where the EF1 damage occurred.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
28 minutes of warning. NWS DTX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:03 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:15 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 15:41 UTC and running to 22:14 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15:41 UTC | 22:14 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | DTX |
| 18:03 UTC | 19:15 UTC | Tornado Warning | DTX |
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 16:22 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
6.5 hours before the tornado, 67 km from the path. June 27, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -77698 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 11 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 948 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 24 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 13 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- -0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.9 K/km
Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z
5.5 hours after it, 67 km from the path. June 28, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1357 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -2 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1668 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 682 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 26 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 95 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 95 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.4
- Supercell composite
- 2.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.3 K/km
The radar
The Detroit radar (KDTX), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:31 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) | Report | Where | County | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:49 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 1 Wnw Saline | Washtenaw, MI | LARGE TREE SNAPPED. |
| 17:55 UTC | TSTM WND GST 50 | Saline | Washtenaw, MI | |
| 18:05 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | Ypsilanti | Washtenaw, MI | HEAVY RAIN AND HIGH WIND WITH HAIL REPORTED. WHITTAKER AND MERRITT RD. |
| 18:18 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ese Willis | Wayne, MI | TOUCHDOWN REPORT AT KARR AND JUDD RD. |
| 18:30 UTC | TORNADO | 4 N Carleton | Wayne, MI | ROOF DAMAGE, POWER LINES DOWN, STRUCTURAL DAMAGE AT WILLOW AND WALTZ RD. |
| 18:31 UTC | TORNADO | Willow | Wayne, MI | NWS SURVEY CONFIRMED A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST SOUTHEAST OF CLARK AND WILLOW ROADS. EF1 DAMAGE WITH WINDS ESTIMATED UP TO 105 MPH WERE NOTED ALONG WALTZ ROAD AND JUST TO THE EAST. DAMAGE INCLUDED MULTIPLE HOMES WITH RO |
| 18:33 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Taylor | Wayne, MI | LARGE TREE BLOW ON A HOUSE AND SMALL PERSONAL GREENHOUSE DAMAGED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2010 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 27, 2010
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 27 | 1:08 PM EDT | EF0 | Van Buren, MI | 0.7 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| June 27 | 1:20 PM CDT | EF1 | Racine, WI | 4.6 | 100 | 1 | $75,000 | |
| June 27 | 6:54 PM EDT | EF1 | Ashtabula, OH | 2.3 | 100 | $300,000 | ||
| June 27 | 7:06 PM EDT | EF1 | Saint Clair, MI | 2.9 | 250 | 1 | 4 | $700,000 |
| June 27 | 7:36 PM EDT | EF0 | Erie, PA | 0.2 | 75 | $120,000 | ||
| June 27 | 8:32 PM EDT | EF0 | Sanilac, MI | 0.5 | 50 | $75,000 | ||
| June 27 | 9:05 PM CDT | EF0 | Jefferson, IL | 0.3 | 50 | $2,000 | ||
| June 27 | 11:05 PM EDT | EF1 | Allegany, NY | 7.4 | 250 | $75,000 |
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.