Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2011
EF0 tornado, Mc Millan Corner to Curtis, Michigan, May 23, 2011
From Mc Millan Corner to Curtis, this EF0 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Luce and Mackinac counties on May 23, 2011, touching down at 6:15 PM 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.
EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- May 23, 2011
- Touchdown
- 6:15 PM EDT (22:15 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:21 PM EDT (22:21 UTC)
- On the ground
- 6 minutes
- Path length
- 2.4 miles (3.9 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Luce and Mackinac counties
- Touchdown point
- 46.263, -85.727
- Lift-off point
- 46.230, -85.741
- Record number
- 1105231615-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Weak low pressure at the surface and aloft helped spin up a weak tornado in the Helmer Bay portion of Manistique Lake in southern Luce County on the evening of the 23rd. After formation the weak tornado then moved south toward Curtis in Mackinac County.
Scattered rain showers developed over Upper Michigan on the afternoon of the 23rd. These did not get especially strong, but one managed to produce a waterspout.
Weak low pressure and cold air aloft helped spin up a weak tornado/waterspout in the Helmer Bay portion of Manistique Lake during the early evening of the 23rd. The tornado/waterspout was not associated with a thunderstorm. The tornado touched down 4.57 miles south southwest of McMillan Corner and moved southward crossing into the Mackinac County portion of Big Manistique Lake 5.88 miles south southwest of McMillan Corner. The tornado then continued southward an additional mile into Mackinac County.
The waterspout formed from an otherwise unimpressive rain shower on the Helmer Bay portion of Manistique Lake in Luce County. It drifted south, crossing into Mackinac County, and soon dissipated over the southeastern portion of the lake.
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:39 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.
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z
10.3 hours before the tornado, 270 km from the path. May 23, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 52 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -66 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 295 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 947 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 35 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 76 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 83 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.2 K/km
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z
1.7 hours after it, 270 km from the path. May 24, 2011.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 2 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -15 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 198 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1101 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 18 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 49 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.1 K/km
The radar
The Marquette radar (KMQT), 143 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:14 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:15 UTC | WATER SPOUT | Helmer | Luce, MI | THE WATERSPOUT STARTED IN HELMER BAY PORTION OF MANISTIQUE LAKE AND MOVED SOUTHWARD TOWARDS CURTIS. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
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 May 23, 2011
17 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 23 | 1:45 PM CDT | EF0 | Howell, MO | 1.0 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| May 23 | 3:54 PM CDT | EF0 | Cape Girardeau, MO | 0.5 | 40 | $1,000 | ||
| May 23 | 5:23 PM EDT | EF2 | Juniata, PA | 4.7 | 250 | $50,000 | ||
| May 23 | 4:26 PM CDT | EF0 | Blaine, OK | 0.3 | 15 | |||
| May 23 | 5:32 PM EDT | EF0 | Huntington, IN | 0.4 | 30 | |||
| May 23 | 5:39 PM EDT | EF1 | Northumberland, PA | 1.2 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| May 23 | 5:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Gallatin, IL | 11.8 | 200 | $250,000 | ||
| May 23 | 6:37 PM EDT | EF1 | Schuylkill, PA | 0.2 | 75 | $20,000 | ||
| May 23 | 6:43 PM EDT | EF0 | Dearborn, IN | 3.1 | 50 | $45,000 | ||
| May 23 | 5:52 PM CDT | EF0 | Osage, OK | 0.1 | 50 | |||
| May 23 | 6:56 PM EDT | EF1 | Van Wert, OH | 4.1 | 100 | |||
| May 23 | 7:25 PM EDT | EF0 | Carbon, PA | 0.4 | 50 | 1 | $75,000 | |
| May 23 | 7:43 PM EDT | EF0 | Clermont, OH | 0.2 | 33 | $30,000 | ||
| May 23 | 6:52 PM CDT | EF2 | Stewart, TN | 13.3 | 150 | 2 | $250,000 | |
| May 23 | 7:55 PM EDT | EF1 | Greene, OH | 0.9 | 100 | $3,000 | ||
| May 23 | 8:10 PM EDT | EF1 | Clark, OH | 0.4 | 100 | $15,000 | ||
| May 23 | 7:10 PM CDT | EF2 | Christian, KY | 17.3 | 175 | 1 | $350,000 |
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.