EF1 tornado, Gitchel to Forest Grove, Michigan, August 20, 2016

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.

Rating

EF1

Date

August 20, 2016

Touchdown

2:18 PM EDT (18:18 UTC)

Lifted

2:26 PM EDT (18:26 UTC)

On the ground

8 minutes

Path length

4.1 miles (6.6 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$500,000

County

Ottawa County

Touchdown point

42.763, -85.861

Lift-off point

42.804, -85.803

Record number

1608201218-01

37 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS GRR, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 mph.

• Many trees limb down. Some are up to 6 inches in diameter.
• Downed trees and wires scattered down 68th Street, east toward Wilson Avenue near the Woodhaven Reformed Church. No structural damage.
• Several trees uprooted/snapped. Minor structural damage to metal sheeting of barn roof.
• Minor roof damage to a house. Several trees tipped or snapped. RV tipped on its side on the back of the property.

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

Six tornadoes struck southwest Michigan on August 20th. An EF-1 tornado touched down just southwest of Bangor on August 20th and tracked northeast through town. The entire city lost power as well as hundreds of trees. Multiple structures in Bangor were damaged as well. ||The second tornado of the day began 6 miles southeast of Fennville and tracked to 4 miles northeast of Hamilton and was rated EF-1. The day's third tornado, also rated EF-1, began 2 miles northwest of Burnips in extreme north-central Allegan County and tracked to 2 miles southeast of Jamestown in extreme southeast Ottawa County.||The day's fourth tornado was rated an EF-0 and touched down near 44th Street and Ivanrest Ave SW in Grandville and continued on the ground along a varying path through Grandville and Wyoming before lifting near the intersection of Nagel Avenue SW and Chicago Drive SW. The fifth tornado was also an EF-0 and it touched down in Kent County near Perkins Avenue NE between Leonard Street NE and Knapp Street NE.||The final tornado of the day was an EF-1 that touched down just east of the small town of Orleans and moved northeast where it crossed M-44. It crossed into Montcalm county from Ionia county before lifting near Sheridan.

The day's third tornado, also rated EF-1, began 2 miles northwest of Burnips and tracked to 2 miles southeast of Jamestown in extreme southeast Ottawa County, causing heavy tree damage.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

6 minutes of warning. NWS GRR issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:12 UTC, 6 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:27 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Marginal Risk. 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 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.

The Grand Rapids radar (KGRR), 26 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:18 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.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

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

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

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.