Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2017

EF0 tornado, Lupton, Michigan, August 17, 2017

This EF0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Ogemaw County on August 17, 2017, touching down at 7:34 PM EDT and reaching 75 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $45,000 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 17, 2017
Touchdown
7:34 PM EDT (23:34 UTC)
Lifted
7:35 PM EDT (23:35 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.3 miles (0.4 km)
Path width
75 yards (69 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$45,000
County
Ogemaw County
Touchdown point
44.402, -83.974
Lift-off point
44.405, -83.972
Record number
1708171734-01

The damage survey

15 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS APX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 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 large area of thunderstorms produced heavy rain, and a single tornado, in northern Michigan.

An EF0 tornado developed over George Lake, and crossed Maple Avenue at the north end of the lake before dissipating. Maximum winds were estimated at 80 mph. Damage was done to docks, outbuildings, and the siding of a few homes.

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 Marginal Risk, with a 0.02 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:47 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

11.6 hours before the tornado, 145 km from the path. August 17, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Alpena, MI at 12:00Z on 2017-08-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1 joules per kilogram, CIN -308, lifted condensation level 694 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, Alpena, MI at 12:00Z on 2017-08-17The 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 169 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 31 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
1 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-308 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
694 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
31 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
169 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
241 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
3.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Alpena, MI (KAPX), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 145 km from the path. August 18, 2017.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Alpena, MI at 00:00Z on 2017-08-18Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 588 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 734 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, Alpena, MI at 00:00Z on 2017-08-18The 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 80 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 27 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
588 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1410 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
734 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
80 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
67 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
5.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The NCL Michigan radar (KAPX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:34 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
23:32 UTCTSTM WND DMG1 Ene Rifle River StateOgemaw, MILAW ENFORCEMENT RELAYED REPORT OF DAMAGE TO 2 HOUSES. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR.
23:34 UTCTORNADO3 Se LuptonOgemaw, MIEF0 TORNADO ALONG MAPLE AVENUE ALONG THE NORTH SHORE OF GEORGE LAKE. MAXIMUM WIND SPEED 80 MPH. DAMAGE TO DOCKS, OUTBUILDINGS AND SIDING.

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2017 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of August 17, 2017

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
August 177:11 PM EDTEF1Trumbull, OH1.0100$50,000
August 179:10 PM EDTEF0Tuscola, MI3.1100

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.