Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2016

EF1 tornado, Cunard, Michigan, August 11, 2016

This EF1 tornado ran 1.3 miles across Menominee County on August 11, 2016, touching down at 4:31 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. EF186 to 110 mphthis tornado

    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
EF1
Date
August 11, 2016
Touchdown
4:31 PM CDT (21:31 UTC)
Lifted
4:40 PM CDT (21:40 UTC)
On the ground
9 minutes
Path length
1.3 miles (2.0 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Menominee County
Touchdown point
45.702, -87.666
Lift-off point
45.708, -87.642
Record number
1608111531-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A cold front moving slowly through a warm and unstable air mass produced thunderstorms with heavy rain over Upper Michigan from the evening of the 10th into the 11th. The front also spawned a tornado over Menominee County on the afternoon of the 11th.

An EF1 tornado touched down just south of the intersection of County Roads 579 and 388 near Hermansville and traveled northeast for 1.25 miles before lifting as it crossed County Road 388. Numerous trees were snapped and uprooted along the path. Small farm equipment was also tossed around as the tornado passed close to a nearby farm and home.

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 19:44 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

9.5 hours before the tornado, 141 km from the path. August 11, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2016-08-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 301 joules per kilogram, CIN -36, lifted condensation level 913 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 2016-08-11The 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 84 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
301 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-36 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
913 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
84 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z

2.5 hours after it, 141 km from the path. August 12, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2016-08-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2 joules per kilogram, CIN -341, lifted condensation level 1378 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 2016-08-12The 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 -19 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 3 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
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-341 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1007 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1378 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
9 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-19 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-59 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Marquette radar (KMQT), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:31 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
21:30 UTCTORNADO3 W HermansvilleMenominee, MITHE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN JUST SOUTH OF THE INTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROADS 579 AND 388 AND TRAVELED NORTHEAST FOR 1.25 MILES, LIFTING AS IT CROSSED COUNTY ROAD 388. THE DAMAGE PATH WAS ESTIMATED TO 200 YARDS WIDE. NUMEROUS
21:30 UTCTORNADO3 W HermansvilleMenominee, MINEAR INTERSECTION OF COUNTY ROAD 388 AND COUNTY ROAD 579 IN HERMANSVILLE. NUMEROUS TREES DOWN. VIDEO FROM SOCIAL MEDIA SHOWS TORNADO. OFFICIAL SURVEY WILL FOLLOW EARLY NEXT WEEK.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2016 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 11, 2016

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 113:31 PM CDTEF0Custer, NE0.010
August 113:33 PM CDTEF0Custer, NE0.010
August 118:52 PM CDTEF0Sherman, NE0.120

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.