Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2016

EF0 tornado, Douglas to Fennville, Michigan, August 12, 2016

From Douglas to Fennville, this EF0 tornado ran 1.1 miles across Allegan County on August 12, 2016, touching down at 2:10 PM EDT and reaching 50 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.

  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 12, 2016
Touchdown
2:10 PM EDT (18:10 UTC)
Lifted
2:12 PM EDT (18:12 UTC)
On the ground
2 minutes
Path length
1.1 miles (1.7 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Allegan County
Touchdown point
42.627, -86.168
Lift-off point
42.627, -86.147
Record number
1608121210-01

What the Weather Service recorded

An EF-0 tornado produced some damage several miles northwest of Fennville where one outbuilding was destroyed and a couple of homes incurred moderate damage to roofing and siding.

An EF-0 tornado touched down briefly near Riverside road. One outbuilding was destroyed and two homes incurred minor siding and roofing damage from debris and fallen trees. Significant tree damage was observed along a path that was about a quarter of a mile long and 25 to 50 yards wide.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
18:12 UTC18:57 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRR
18:17 UTC18:45 UTCTornado WarningGRR
20:00 UTC12:00 UTCFlood WatchGRR
04:46 UTC13:00 UTCFlood WarningGRR

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 Marginal Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:22 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

6.2 hours before the tornado, 223 km from the path. August 12, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z 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 1934 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 603 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 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 -3 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 17 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
1934 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1903 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
603 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-3 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-1 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

5.8 hours after it, 223 km from the path. August 13, 2016.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2016-08-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 293 joules per kilogram, CIN -55, lifted condensation level 857 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 2016-08-13The 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 20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
293 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-55 J/kg
Surface CAPE
429 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
857 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
18 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Grand Rapids radar (KGRR), 58 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:08 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
18:10 UTCTSTM WND DMG2 Se SaugatuckAllegan, MIMULTIPLE TREES/BRANCHES AND POWER LINES REPORTED DOWN IN THE SAUGATUCK-DOUGLAS AREA. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
18:10 UTCTORNADO3 Nw FennvilleAllegan, MIEF-0 TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN BRIEFLY NEAR RIVERSIDE ROAD. ONE OUTBUILDING WAS DESTROYED. TWO HOMES HAD MINOR SIDING OR ROOFING DAMAGE FROM DEBRIS AND FALLEN TREES. SIGNIFICANT TREE DAMAGE ALONG THE PATH THAT WAS ABOUT ONE Q
18:11 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Nw FennvilleAllegan, MIAN OUTBUILDING WAS DEMOLISHED ON RIVERSIDE ROAD. A TREE FELL ON A NEARBY HOUSE, RESULTING IN ROOF DAMAGE. REPORT RELAYED BY WOOD TV.
19:00 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.86North DorrAllegan, MI1 INCH OF RAIN IN 30 MINUTES
19:52 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.14KentwoodKent, MISTORM TOTAL RAINFALL AT 60TH AND EAST PARIS.
20:09 UTCHEAVY RAIN 2.34 E KentwoodKent, MIDAILY RAINFALL TOTAL AS OF 409 PM. 1.98 INCHES OF RAIN FELL IN ONE HOUR THROUGH 353 PM.
20:20 UTCHEAVY RAIN 1.03East Grand RapidsKent, MIRAINFALL FELL IN ABOUT ONE HOUR.

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 12, 2016

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 129:44 AM CDTEF0East Baton Rouge Parish, LA0.325$200,000

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.