Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2014
EF1 tornado, Johannesburg to Hetherton, Michigan, September 1, 2014
From Johannesburg to Hetherton, this EF1 tornado ran 7.2 miles across Otsego County on September 1, 2014, touching down at 2:42 PM EDT and reaching 210 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $215,000 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
- September 1, 2014
- Touchdown
- 2:42 PM EDT (18:42 UTC)
- Lifted
- 2:56 PM EDT (18:56 UTC)
- On the ground
- 14 minutes
- Path length
- 7.2 miles (11.6 km)
- Path width
- 210 yards (192 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $215,000
- County
- Otsego County
- Touchdown point
- 44.913, -84.513
- Lift-off point
- 44.961, -84.382
- Record number
- 1409011242-01
The damage survey
2 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS APX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 107 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
A broken line of thunderstorms crossed northern Michigan on the afternoon of Labor Day, September 1st. Several storms within the line became supercells as they crossed the region. These storms produced four tornadoes.
An EF-1 tornado carved a path across southeast Otsego County. A large number of hardwood and softwood trees were downed, with several falling on area residences. Peak winds were estimated at 110 mph.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
12 minutes of warning. NWS APX issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:30 UTC, 12 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:00 UTC.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:25 UTC and running to 19:48 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:25 UTC | 19:48 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | APX |
| 17:52 UTC | 18:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | APX |
| 18:30 UTC | 19:00 UTC | Tornado Warning | APX |
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 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 16:28 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.
Alpena, MI (KAPX), 12:00Z
6.7 hours before the tornado, 162 km from the path. September 1, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 43 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -133 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 955 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 104 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 96 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.7 K/km
Alpena, MI (KAPX), 00:00Z
5.3 hours after it, 162 km from the path. September 2, 2014.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 149 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -6 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 312 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 678 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 60 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 31 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 38 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 50 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The radar
The NCL Michigan radar (KAPX), 22 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:41 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:47 UTC | TORNADO | 9 Ne Kalkaska | Kalkaska, MI | NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-1 TORNADO. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF MAINLY UPROOTED HARDWOOD AND SOFTWOOD TREES...WITH SEVERAL RESIDENCES DAMAGED FROM FALLING TREES. MAXIMUM WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AT 100 MP |
| 17:53 UTC | TORNADO 1 | 3 Nne Darragh | Kalkaska, MI | NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-1 TORNADO. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF MAINLY UPROOTED HARDWOOD AND SOFTWOOD TREES...WITH SEVERAL RESIDENCES DAMAGED FROM FALLING TREES. MAXIMUM WINDS ARE ESTIMATED AT 100 MP |
| 18:01 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 9 Nne Bear Lake | Kalkaska, MI | POSSIBLE TORNADO WITH A LOT OF TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN OVER NORTHEASTERN PORTIONS OF KALKASKA COUNTY. |
| 18:16 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sw Frederic | Crawford, MI | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-1 TORNADO. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF UPROOTED AND SNAPPED TREES AS WELL AS SIGNIFICANT ROOF DAMAGE TO ONE RESIDENCE AND SIGNIFICANT DAMAGE TO A BARN. THE MAXIMUM WINDS WE |
| 18:28 UTC | FUNNEL CLOUD | Frederic | Crawford, MI | TREES AND POWER LINES REPORTED DOWN AS WELL |
| 18:28 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Frederic | Crawford, MI | TREES AND POWERLINES DOWN. CALLER REPORTED SEEING FUNNEL CLOUD AS WELL. |
| 18:30 UTC | HEAVY RAIN 1 | East Jordan | Charlevoix, MI | |
| 18:42 UTC | TORNADO | 5 Ssw Johannesburg | Otsego, MI | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-1 TORNADO. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF UPROOTED HARDWOOD TREES AND SOFTWOOD TREES WITH A NUMBER OF THESE TREES FALLING ON AND DAMAGING RESIDENCES. THE MAXIMUM WINDS WERE ES |
| 18:43 UTC | TORNADO | 3 E Interstate 75 Mile | Cheboygan, MI | A NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE STORM SURVEY CONFIRMED AN EF-0 TORNADO. DAMAGE CONSISTED OF UPROOTED AND SNAPPED TREES. THE MAXIMUM WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT 80 MPH. THE PATH LENGTH WAS 0.2 MILES WITH A MAXIMUM WIDTH OF 30 YARD |
| 18:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Johannesburg | Otsego, MI | HOUSE DAMAGED. TREES AND POWER LINES DOWN. RELAYED FROM LAW ENFORCEMENT. POSSIBLE TORNADO. |
| 18:57 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wolverine | Cheboygan, MI | TREES DOWN |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2014 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 1, 2014
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1 | 1:47 PM EDT | EF1 | Kalkaska, MI | 4.0 | 125 | $160,000 | ||
| September 1 | 2:16 PM EDT | EF1 | Crawford, MI | 9.1 | 75 | $85,000 | ||
| September 1 | 2:43 PM EDT | EF0 | Cheboygan, MI | 0.7 | 30 | $20,000 | ||
| September 1 | 7:41 PM CDT | EF0 | Craig, OK | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| September 1 | 8:01 PM CDT | EF0 | Cowley, KS | 3.7 | 100 | |||
| September 1 | 8:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Chautauqua, KS | 7.4 | 100 | |||
| September 1 | 10:43 PM CDT | EF1 | Jefferson, MO | 6.4 | 60 | |||
| September 1 | 11:13 PM CDT | EF1 | Newton, MO | 2.2 | 100 | $50,000 | ||
| September 1 | 11:14 PM CDT | EF1 | Newton, MO | 2.7 | 400 | |||
| September 1 | 11:36 PM CDT | EF0 | Newton, MO | 1.2 | 100 | $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.