Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2016
EF1 tornado, Hurley to Anvil Location, Michigan, July 11, 2016
From Hurley to Anvil Location, this EF1 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Gogebic County on July 11, 2016, touching down at 11:55 PM CDT and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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
- July 11, 2016
- Touchdown
- 11:55 PM CDT (04:55 UTC)
- Lifted
- 12:00 AM CDT (05:00 UTC)
- On the ground
- 5 minutes
- Path length
- 2.4 miles (3.9 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $100,000
- County
- Gogebic County
- Touchdown point
- 46.434, -90.063
- Lift-off point
- 46.451, -90.018
- Record number
- 1607112255-01
The damage survey
3 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DLH and NWS MQT, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF1. The highest wind the damage implies is 100 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 warm and humid air mass ahead of a low pressure system approaching from the Northern Plains set the stage for the formation of severe thunderstorms over portions of Gogebic County from late evening on the 11th into the early morning of the 12th. The storms caused flash flooding and damaging winds over portions of Gogebic County.
An EF1 tornado touched down near the Wisconsin-Michigan border just southeast of Van Buskirk and caused damage for less than a mile before dissipating. Damage consisted mostly of uprooted or snapped trees.
The NWS storm survey confirmed a low end EF1 tornado about three miles south of Bessemer. Winds from the tornado were estimated around 90 mph. The tornado touched down near the intersection of S. Barber Road and Spruce Road and ended 2.4 miles to the east-northeast, just northeast of the intersection of W. Harding Road and Koski Road. Damage included multiple trees down on a garage on Spruce Street and half a barn destroyed in Bessemer Township on Elder Street. |||The damage path was 200 yards wide or less and occurred just before midnight CDT.
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) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:05 UTC | 01:42 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | MQT |
| 00:37 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MQT |
| 02:21 UTC | 05:15 UTC | Flood Advisory | MQT |
| 02:55 UTC | 09:00 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | MQT |
| 04:59 UTC | 05:45 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MQT |
| 05:30 UTC | 05:59 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | MQT |
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 00:50 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), 00:00Z
4.9 hours before the tornado, 266 km from the path. July 12, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 1537 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -60 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 2657 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1146 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 28 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 21 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 150 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 226 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.9
- Supercell composite
- 8.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.8 K/km
Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z
7.1 hours after it, 266 km from the path. July 12, 2016.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -44642 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1049 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 48 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 9 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -74 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 108 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.3
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
The radar
The Duluth radar (KDLH), 171 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:51 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 03:45 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 5 Sw Little Girls Point | Gogebic, MI | GOGEBIC COUNTY SHERIFFS REPORT THAT THE MONTREAL RIVER BRIDGE IS FLOODED ON LAKE RD. AT THE MICHIGAN AND WISCONSIN BORDER. THE GOGEBIC COUNTY ROAD COMMISSION HAS CLOSED LAKE RD. FROM NEAR SAXON WI TO LOWER POWERS ROAD. |
| 03:50 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 4 N Saxon | Iron, WI | MONTREAL RIVER IS ON THE BRIDGE ALONG HIGHWAY 122 AND LAKE ROAD.WATER OVER THE ROADWAY. |
| 04:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Bessemer | Gogebic, MI | GOGEBIC COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGER REPORTS HALF A BARN WAS DESTROYED IN BESSEMER TOWNSHIP ON ELDER STREET. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 04:45 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 3 S Bessemer | Gogebic, MI | GOGEBIC COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS MULTIPLE TREES DOWN ON A GARAGE WITH STRUCTURAL DAMAGE ON SPRUCE STREET IN BESSEMER TOWNSHIP. DELAYED REPORT. |
| 04:54 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wakefield | Gogebic, MI | NWS STORM SURVEY CONCLUDED THAT DAMAGE IN AND IMMEDIATELY SURROUNDING WAKEFIELD WAS CAUSED BY STRAIGHT LINE THUNDERSTORM WINDS UP TO 90 MPH. A CAMPER TRAILER WAS OVERTURNED...A LARGE BUILDING HAD THE ROOF RIPPED OFF...A |
| 04:55 UTC | TORNADO | 3 S Bessemer | Gogebic, MI | NWS STORM SURVEY CONFIRMS LOW END EF1 TORNADO ABOUT 3 MILES SOUTH OF BESSEMER. WINDS WERE ESTIMATED AT AROUND 90 MPH. THE TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE INTERSECTION OF S. BARBER RD AND SPRUCE RD AND ENDED 2.4 MILES TO TH |
| 05:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wakefield | Gogebic, MI | GOGEBIC COUNTY LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTS MULTIPLE TREES DOWN IN WAKEFIELD. |
| 05:00 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | Wakefield | Gogebic, MI | POWER LINES ARE DOWN IN WAKEFIELD ON HARRISON RD. LARGE TREES OF 30 TO 40 INCH DIAMETER HAVE SNAPPED. POWER IS OUT IN WAKEFIELD. |
| 05:00 UTC | TSTM WND GST 73 | 1 W Wakefield | Gogebic, MI | MESONET STATION WAKEFIELD /MC026/. |
| 05:10 UTC | NON-TSTM WND GST 73 | 1 W Wakefield | Gogebic, MI | MESONET STATION WAKEFIELD /MC026/. |
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 July 11, 2016
5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.