EF2 tornado, Dowagiac to La Grange, Michigan, June 5, 2010

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

EF2

Date

June 5, 2010

Touchdown

11:59 PM EDT (03:59 UTC)

Lifted

12:04 AM EDT (04:04 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

2.7 miles (4.4 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Cass County

Touchdown point

41.962, -86.092

Lift-off point

41.952, -86.040

Record number

1006052159-01

A warm front worked north towards Lower Michigan during the evening hours of the 5th. Storms were initially slow to organize, but quickly intensified and became super-cellular as they moved off Lake Michigan. A combination of tornadoes and micro bursts were found in surveys across Berrien, Cass and St. Joseph counties.

After leaving behind a swath of microburst winds, the storm intensified with a tornado touching down about a half mile southwest of Southwestern Michigan College, near Dowagiac. The circulation initially impacted the Pokagon subdivision with numerous homes suffering varying degrees of damage (DI: FR12 DOD: 4). The circulation continued east-southeast through mainly open and wooded areas, severely damaging numerous trees. The most extensive tree damage occurred near Michigan 62, west of Twin Lake Road where a 600 yard wide area of trees suffered extensive damage. The circulation was likely embedded within a much larger area of rear flank downdraft winds. The circulation then turned more southeast and hit a cemetery on Michigan 62, south of Cass Street. The circulation quickly dissipated after this point. Maximum winds are estimated at around 115 mph.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

26 minutes of warning. NWS IWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 03:33 UTC, 26 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 04:00 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:11 UTC and running to 06:17 UTC.

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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 01:06 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 Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 73 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:57 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 2010 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

42 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.