Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2018
EF0 tornado, Bath to St Johns Archer Fld, Michigan, September 1, 2018
From Bath to St Johns Archer Fld, this EF0 tornado ran 4.0 miles across Clinton County on September 1, 2018, touching down at 8:35 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
EF186 to 110 mph
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
- EF0
- Date
- September 1, 2018
- Touchdown
- 8:35 PM EDT (00:35 UTC)
- Lifted
- 8:45 PM EDT (00:45 UTC)
- On the ground
- 10 minutes
- Path length
- 4.0 miles (6.4 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $200,000
- County
- Clinton County
- Touchdown point
- 42.860, -84.400
- Lift-off point
- 42.879, -84.379
- Record number
- 1809011835-01
What the Weather Service recorded
Severe thunderstorms developed across central, southern, and southwestern Lower Michigan during the late afternoon and evening of September 1st, 2018. Four tornadoes occurred. Most of the damage was confined to trees and associated structural damage due to falling trees. Some of the storms were well-photographed and had a visible structure resembling supercell thunderstorms, including rotating rain-free updraft bases, wall clouds, and brief funnel clouds.
The majority of damage was concentrated in the last 1.5 miles of the path near Cutler Road to the intersection of Hollister and Round Lake Roads. Damage to trees and structures was common along the tornado path.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01:32 UTC | 11:10 UTC | Flood Watch | GRR |
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 19:57 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), 00:00Z
0.6 hours before the tornado, 80 km from the path. September 2, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 253 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -84 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1237 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1159 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 32 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 15 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 108 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 244 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.1
- Supercell composite
- 1.7
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.2 K/km
Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z
11.4 hours after it, 80 km from the path. September 2, 2018.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 477 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -81 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 984 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 826 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 24 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 29 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 103 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 117 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 1.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.1 K/km
The radar
The Detroit radar (KDTX), 77 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:32 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:35 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ne Bath | Clinton, MI | LOCATION IS THE MID POINT OF A 3.8 MILE DAMAGE PATH. TREES DOWN AND SOME ROOF DAMAGE TO HOMES. POSSIBLE TORNADO. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
| 00:35 UTC | TORNADO | 3 Sw Laingsburg | Clinton, MI | EF-0 TORNADO WITH ESTIMATED MAXIMUM WINDS OF 80 MPH. MAXIMUM WIDTH APPROXIMATELY 100 YARDS. PATH ESTIMATED AT 4 MILES THOUGH BULK OF DAMAGE OCCURRED ALONG THE NORTHEAST 1.5 MILES OF THE PATH WITH INTERMITTENT DAMAGE CONF |
| 00:38 UTC | TSTM WND DMG | 4 Ne Bath | Clinton, MI | NUMEROUS TREES DOWN BLOCKING CUTLER AND UPTON ROADS. TIME ESTIMATED FROM RADAR. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2018 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of September 1, 2018
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 1 | 2:15 PM MDT | EF0 | Taos, NM | 0.3 | 20 | |||
| September 1 | 7:08 PM EDT | EF0 | Barry, MI | 0.4 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| September 1 | 7:46 PM EDT | EF0 | Mecosta, MI | 0.8 | 100 | $150,000 | ||
| September 1 | 8:12 PM EDT | EF0 | Jackson, MI | 1.5 | 225 | $100,000 |
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.