Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2010
EF1 tornado, Detroit Beach to Estral Beach, Michigan, June 6, 2010
From Detroit Beach to Estral Beach, this EF1 tornado ran 5.2 miles across Monroe County on June 6, 2010, touching down at 2:33 AM EDT and reaching 500 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10 million 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 6, 2010
- Touchdown
- 2:33 AM EDT (06:33 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:39 AM EDT (06:39 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 5.2 miles (8.3 km)
- Path width
- 500 yards (457 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $10 million
- County
- Monroe County
- Touchdown point
- 41.936, -83.327
- Lift-off point
- 41.980, -83.239
- Record number
- 1006060033-01
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong low pressure system tracked through Detroit Metro area during the early morning hours of June 6th, spawning three tornadoes south of I-94, with flash flooding occuring over Washtenaw and Wayne counties as 2 to 4 inches of rain was recorded. The two tornadoes which occured over Monroe county damaged a total of 311 buildings. Five single family homes were destroyed. Major damage occured at 34 structures. Minor damage was observed at 74 structures, with 198 other homes affected needing mostly cosmetic repairs. The village of Dundee was hardest hit.
A tornado touched down at 233 am just southwest of Woodland Beach. The tornado tracked 5 miles to the northeast, reaching Estral Beach at 239 am before moving into Lake Erie. The path width was 500 yards with estimated maximum winds of 90 mph, which is classified at an EF1. This tornado impacted the Fermi nuclear power facility, peeling off a section of the roof and some siding on storage buildings. Over 125 homes and 23 vehicles were damaged, with many trees downed.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
18 minutes of warning. NWS DTX issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:15 UTC, 18 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 06:46 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 02:14 UTC and running to 06:52 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22:00 UTC | 07:26 UTC | Flood Watch | DTX |
| 02:14 UTC | 06:52 UTC | Tornado Watch | DTX |
| 03:31 UTC | 03:57 UTC | Tornado Warning | DTX |
| 06:15 UTC | 06:46 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 06:04 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), 00:00Z
6.6 hours before the tornado, 86 km from the path. June 6, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -86613 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 16 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1785 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 52 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 1 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 0 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 58 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z
5.4 hours after it, 86 km from the path. June 6, 2010.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -78266 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 661 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 78 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -158 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -98 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.1 K/km
The radar
The Detroit radar (KDTX), 84 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:34 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:59 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2 | Ne Ypsilanti | Washtenaw, MI | 3 HOUR TOTAL |
| 04:30 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.23 | Garden City | Wayne, MI | 4 HOUR TOTAL. |
| 04:43 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Ann Arbor | Washtenaw, MI | WATER COVERING ROADS AT M14 AND US23. |
| 04:47 UTC | TSTM WND GST 58 | Ann Arbor | Washtenaw, MI | INTERSECTION OF ROSINVILLE AND TEXTILE |
| 04:47 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Ann Arbor | Washtenaw, MI | INTERSECTION OF 94 AND WHITTAKER RD. |
| 04:47 UTC | TSTM WND GST 60 | Ann Arbor | Washtenaw, MI | INTERSECTION OF RIDGE AND GETTYS |
| 05:13 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1.5 | Dearborn | Wayne, MI | 1 HOUR ESTIMATED TOTAL. |
| 05:21 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2.18 | Dearborn | Wayne, MI | STORM TOTAL SO FAR. .77 INCHES HAVE FALLEN IN THE PAST 45 MINUTES. |
| 05:50 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Milan | Washtenaw, MI | REPORTS OF DAMAGE TO HOMES. TREES BLOWN DOWN. |
| 05:53 UTC | FLOOD | Novi | Oakland, MI | WATER COVERING THE ROAD NEAR 12 MILE AND NOVI ROAD |
| 06:05 UTC | FLOOD | Farmington | Oakland, MI | WATER IS CURB TO CURB ON FARMINGTON ROAD BETWEEN 11 AND 12 MILE ROAD. |
| 06:05 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Farmington | Oakland, MI | WATER IS CURB TO CURB ON FARMINGTON ROAD BETWEEN 11 AND 12 MILE ROAD. |
| 06:07 UTC | TSTM WND GST 45 | Pittsfield Township | Washtenaw, MI | INTERSECTION OF US 23 AND MICHIGAN AVENUE. |
| 06:11 UTC | TORNADO | 4 W Dundee | Monroe, MI | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED THAT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AT 211 AM AT COUNTY LINE ROAD AND RANKIN ROAD. THE TORNADO TRACKED EAST SOUTHEAST...MOVING THROUGH DUNDEE AT 217 AM. MAXIMUM WINDS OF 130 TO 1 |
| 06:17 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Dundee | Monroe, MI | VARIOUS TREES DOWN. |
| 06:17 UTC | TORNADO | Dundee | Monroe, MI | DISPATCH REPORTS DAMAGE TO HOUSES AND TREES. TRUCKS BLOWN OVER ON US23. DAMAGE TO CABELAS. |
| 06:33 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Ne Monroe | Monroe, MI | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY TEAM ALSO CONFIRMED THAT A TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN AT 233 AM AT THE SOUTHWEST PORTION OF DETROIT BEACH. THE TORNADO TRACKED 5 MILES TO THE NORTHEAST...REACHING ESTRAL BEACH AT 239 AM |
| 06:35 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | Ann Arbor | Washtenaw, MI | WATER CURB TO CURB AT INTERSECTION OF HACKARD RD AND EISENHOWER RD. |
| 06:35 UTC | TSTM WND GST 51 | Monroe | Monroe, MI | |
| 06:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 2 S Newport | Monroe, MI | APPROXIMATELY ONE DOZEN HOMES DAMAGED IN THE WOODLAND BEACH AREA. |
| 07:07 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 2.29 | Garden City | Wayne, MI | 6 HOUR STORM TOTAL. LAWNS AND BASINS FLOODED. |
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 6, 2010
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 6 | 2:10 AM EDT | EF0 | Erie, PA | 5.8 | 50 | $200,000 | ||
| June 6 | 2:11 AM EDT | EF2 | Monroe, MI | 13.0 | 800 | 11 | $50 million | |
| June 6 | 5:34 AM EDT | EF0 | Union, OH | 3.4 | 100 | $64,000 | ||
| June 6 | 6:01 AM EDT | EF1 | Ashtabula, OH | 4.5 | 100 | $500,000 | ||
| June 6 | 6:45 AM EDT | EF0 | Crawford, PA | 0.5 | 20 | $30,000 | ||
| June 6 | 7:05 AM EDT | EF0 | Mercer, PA | 3.0 | 80 | $100,000 | ||
| June 6 | 7:02 PM EDT | EF0 | Delaware, IN | 0.1 | 25 | $3,000 | ||
| June 6 | 8:31 PM MDT | EF0 | Chase, NE | 2.0 | 20 |
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.