Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2013

EF0 tornado, Cohoctah Center to Cohoctah, Michigan, August 27, 2013

From Cohoctah Center to Cohoctah, this EF0 tornado ran 1.6 miles across Livingston County on August 27, 2013, touching down at 11:54 PM EDT and reaching 420 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $5,000 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 27, 2013
Touchdown
11:54 PM EDT (03:54 UTC)
Lifted
11:58 PM EDT (03:58 UTC)
On the ground
4 minutes
Path length
1.6 miles (2.6 km)
Path width
420 yards (384 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$5,000
County
Livingston County
Touchdown point
42.744, -83.984
Lift-off point
42.754, -83.955
Record number
1308272154-01

The damage survey

8 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DTX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

What the Weather Service recorded

Two weak tornadoes developed in Southern Livingston County from the same thunderstorm that was moving along a boundary that was over the county.

Numerous hardwood and softwood trees were uprooted and snapped with this EF0 tornado. Maximum winds estimated at 80 mph. The tornado touched down near Betterly Road, tracking East, then hooking Southeast to Northeast, tracking across Byron Road before lifting just before Oak Grove Road.

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
20:52 UTC02:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WatchDTX
04:29 UTC10:30 UTCFlood AdvisoryDTX

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. The outlook in force was issued at 00:56 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

3.9 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. August 28, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2013-08-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1694 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 942 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 00:00Z on 2013-08-28The 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 210 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 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
1694 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2382 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
942 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
210 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
226 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.4
Supercell composite
9.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z

8.1 hours after it, 44 km from the path. August 28, 2013.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2013-08-28Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 554 joules per kilogram, CIN -29, lifted condensation level 516 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 2013-08-28The 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 -2 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 35 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
554 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-29 J/kg
Surface CAPE
598 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
516 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
12 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-2 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
43 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.1
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Howell (OZW), 13 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
01:55 UTC7876.82150° 6 kt1011.9BR
02:14 UTC7877.18160° 6 kt1011.5-RA
02:34 UTC78.4477.18160° 4 kt1011.9-RA
02:55 UTC78.877150° 6 kt1011.5-RA
03:14 UTC78.876.46140° 3 kt1011.9+RA
03:34 UTC7876.28100° 7 kt1010.8RA
03:55 UTC77.3676.46100° 10 kt1010.2RA
04:14 UTC77.1876.280° 0 kt1010.2+RA
04:34 UTC76.2875.38300° 11 kt191011.2+RA
05:15 UTC75.274.48240° 11 kt151010.5+RA
05:34 UTC74.373.76240° 11 kt151009.8+RA

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

The radar

The Detroit radar (KDTX), 41 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 03:54 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)ReportWhereCountyRemark
04:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 4.64CorunnaShiawassee, MI18 HOUR RAINFALL BETWEEN 6 AM AND MIDNIGHT ON 8/27
04:08 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.27OkemosIngham, MI24 HOUR TOTAL. STREET FLOODING OBSERVED.
04:12 UTCFLOOD3 W LansingEaton, MITHREE VEHICLES STUCK IN WATER ON MICHIGAN AVE WEST OF WAVERLY.
04:28 UTCFLOOD4 S LansingIngham, MIFLOOD WATERS HAVE REACHED THE HOODS OF VEHICLES AT THE FORD DEALERSHIP ON CEDAR ST. REPORT COURTESY OF WLNS.
04:28 UTCFLOODLansingIngham, MIMAJOR ROADS IN CITY OF LANSING ARE FLOODING INCLUDING CEDAR ST...PENNSYLVANIA AVE...AND MICHIGAN AVE.
04:37 UTCFLOOD4 Ese LansingIngham, MIMANY ROADS ON MSU CAMPUS FLOODED. SHAW LANE AND BOGUE IMPASSABLE.
04:39 UTCFLOOD4 Nw LansingClinton, MIONE FOOT OF WATER OVER GRAND RIVER AVE WEST OF AIRPORT. DELTA TOWNSHIP REPORTING MUCH OF EAST HALF OF TOWNSHIP FLOODED.
04:44 UTCFLOOD2 Ene LansingIngham, MIU.S. 127 FLOODED UNDER M-43 OVERPASS. LANSING TOWNSHIP POLICE REQUESTING SHUTDOWN OF U.S. 127 BOTH DIRECTIONS. TRAFIC EXITING AT M-43 AND GETTING BACK ON 127 ON THE OTHER SIDE OF M-43.
04:48 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.66 Wnw LansingClinton, MIRAINFALL TOTAL TONIGHT.
04:50 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 W BrightonLivingston, MIMULTIPLE TREES DOWN
04:50 UTCTORNADO 02 W BrightonLivingston, MITHE TORNADO WAS RATED EF0 WITH MAXIMUM WINDS OF 80 MPH. THE PATH WIDTH WAS 0.3 MILES WIDE AND THE LENGTH WAS 2.8 MILES LONG. THE TORNADO STARTED ON BRIGHTON ROAD BETWEEN TIMBERBEND DRIVE AND BAUER ROAD. IT TRAVELED SOUTH
04:50 UTCHEAVY RAIN 35 S LansingIngham, MITHREE INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN AN HOUR AND A HALF ENDING AT 1250AM. MEASURED AT WILX TV.
05:48 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.66 Wnw LansingClinton, MIRAINFALL TOTAL TONIGHT.
05:50 UTCHEAVY RAIN 35 S LansingIngham, MITHREE INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN AN HOUR AND A HALF ENDING AT 1250AM. MEASURED AT WILX TV.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2013 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 27, 2013

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 2712:50 AM EDTEF0Livingston, MI3.0700$10,000

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.