Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2012
EF1 tornado, Alamanda to North Bradley, Michigan, March 12, 2012
From Alamanda to North Bradley, this EF1 tornado ran 5.1 miles across Midland County on March 12, 2012, touching down at 6:43 PM EDT and reaching 125 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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
- March 12, 2012
- Touchdown
- 6:43 PM EDT (22:43 UTC)
- Lifted
- 6:48 PM EDT (22:48 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 5.1 miles (8.2 km)
- Path width
- 125 yards (114 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $75,000
- County
- Midland County
- Touchdown point
- 43.712, -84.568
- Lift-off point
- 43.756, -84.486
- Record number
- 1203121643-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Unusually mild air streaming into southeast Michigan coupled with large upper level low over the Western Great Lakes help produced a tornado across Midland county, along with large hail and a separate wind report across Bay county.
An EF1 tornado with winds estimated at 90 mph started near Weinert and Lewis Roads where a Garage was destroyed. The tornado moved northeast damaging 3 or more pole barns and uprooting trees, especially around Alamando and Mando Roads and near the end of the Tornado path at M-18 and Shaffer Road. The tornado path was 5.1 miles with a maximum width of 125 yards. The tornado ended at 648 PM EDT.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
10 minutes of warning. NWS DTX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:33 UTC, 10 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.
The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 20:25 UTC and running to 01:26 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:25 UTC | 01:26 UTC | Tornado Watch | DTX |
| 22:33 UTC | 23:15 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 20:00 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
10.7 hours before the tornado, 144 km from the path. March 12, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -67372 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1981 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 42 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 124 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 86 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.3 K/km
Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z
1.3 hours after it, 144 km from the path. March 13, 2012.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 6 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -4 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 3 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 519 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 60 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 41 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 434 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 589 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The Grand Rapids radar (KGRR), 125 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:43 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:30 UTC | HAIL 0.75 | 5 Ne Mount Pleasant | Isabella, MI | |
| 22:43 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Se Coleman | Midland, MI | NUMEROUS TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN WITH SOME TREES ON HOUSES AND BLOCKING ROADWAYS NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF BURNS AND RANKY ROADS. |
| 22:43 UTC | HAIL 1.25 | 3 S Coleman | Midland, MI | |
| 22:43 UTC | HAIL 2 | Coleman | Midland, MI | MULTIPLE REPORTS AND PICUTRES OF 2 INCH HAIL IN COLEMAN. |
| 22:43 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 3 Sse Coleman | Midland, MI | EF1 TORNADO WITH WINDS ESTIMATED TO 90 MPH STARTED NEAR WEINERT AND LEWIS ROADS WHERE A GARAGE WAS DESTOYED. THE TORNADO MOVED NORTHEST DAMAGING 3 MORE POLE BARNS AND UPROOTING TREES...ESPECIALLY AROUND ALAMANDO AND MAND |
| 22:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sse Coleman | Midland, MI | MIDLAND COUNTY 911 REPORTED A POLEBARN WAS BLOWN DOWN AND THE ROOF WAS BLOWN OFF A HOUSE NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF WEINERT ROAD AND NORTH LEWIS ROAD. |
| 23:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Ese Coleman | Midland, MI | POWER LINES DOWN ALONG SAGINAW ROAD BETWEEN GENEVA AND ALAMANDO ROADS. |
| 23:20 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 Sse Mount Forest | Bay, MI | MULTIPLE TREES DOWN AND A BOAT DESTROYED. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2012 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
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.