Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2011

EF0 tornado, Galloway to Lakefield, Michigan, August 9, 2011

From Galloway to Lakefield, this EF0 tornado ran 0.7 miles across Gratiot and Saginaw counties on August 9, 2011, touching down at 3:05 PM EDT and reaching 50 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.

  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
August 9, 2011
Touchdown
3:05 PM EDT (19:05 UTC)
Lifted
3:10 PM EDT (19:10 UTC)
On the ground
5 minutes
Path length
0.7 miles (1.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$500,000
Crop damage
$500
Counties
Gratiot and Saginaw counties
Touchdown point
43.338, -84.390
Lift-off point
43.340, -84.358
Record number
1108091305-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A minor severe weather outbreak occurred across southwest lower Michigan on the afternoon of August 9th, as a cold front moved through the area.

A marginal severe thunderstorm produced a brief tornado in Lakefield Township in Saginaw County. Then another isolated severe thunderstorm moved through the northern suburbs of Detroit.

A National Weather Service Storm Survey Team confirmed an EF-0 tornado briefly touched down on Tuesday, August 9th, 2011 in Lafayette Township in Gratiot County. This tornado was on the ground for about 250 yards in Lafeyette Township causing significant damage to a 99 year old family farm. This same storm produced a weak EF-0 tornado that touched down briefly for about 200 yards in a corn field in Lakefield Township in Saginaw County. Some very minor crop damage was found along the path between the two tornado touchdowns. Maximum wind gusts were estimated to be around 80mph in Lafayette Township.

A weak tornado over Lafayette Township in Gratiot County tracked east-northeast into Saginaw County before lifting. Just some minor crop damage was observed, with winds estimated at 70 mph.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:10 UTC13:27 UTCDense Fog AdvisoryGRR

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 16:24 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

7.1 hours before the tornado, 103 km from the path. August 9, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2011-08-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 22 joules per kilogram, CIN -38, lifted condensation level 628 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 2011-08-09The 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 44 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 33 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
22 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-38 J/kg
Surface CAPE
7 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
628 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
33 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
16 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
44 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
76 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

4.9 hours after it, 103 km from the path. August 10, 2011.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2011-08-10Temperature 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 -78966, lifted condensation level 1458 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, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2011-08-10The 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 56 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-78966 J/kg
Surface CAPE
490 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1458 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
45 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Alma (AMN), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:13 UTC7768220° 8 kt1001.7
17:33 UTC7768210° 10 kt1001.4
17:53 UTC75.268230° 8 kt1001.4
18:13 UTC71.668280° 4 kt1001
18:33 UTC71.669.8280° 6 kt1001
18:53 UTC71.668260° 10 kt221001-RA
19:13 UTC75.268260° 12 kt231001
19:33 UTC75.268260° 11 kt151001
19:53 UTC7764.4270° 13 kt181001
20:14 UTC7760.8270° 14 kt221001
20:34 UTC7762.6270° 14 kt201001
20:54 UTC73.460.8270° 12 kt231001.4

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

The radar

The Detroit radar (KDTX), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:04 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.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2011 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 9, 2011

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 92:23 PM EDTEF0Monmouth, NJ1.750$100,000
August 92:45 PM MDTEF0Park, MT0.110

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.