EF0 tornado, Lennon to Otisville Arpt, Michigan, March 14, 2019

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.

Rating

EF0

Date

March 14, 2019

Touchdown

7:24 PM EDT (23:24 UTC)

Lifted

7:29 PM EDT (23:29 UTC)

On the ground

5 minutes

Path length

6.5 miles (10.5 km)

Path width

75 yards (69 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Genesee County

Touchdown point

43.107, -83.647

Lift-off point

43.176, -83.558

Record number

1903141724-01

23 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS DTX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 83 mph.

• Large tree limb down on deck. Minor housing damage.
• Several downed and sheared tree limbs.
• Pine tree sheared aloft and visible debris on ground.
• Trailer home completely lifted off foundation, eventually blown into large tree.

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

The first severe weather and tornado event for 2019 in Southeast Michigan occurred on Thursday, March 14. A large, powerful low pressure system moved up across the central Plains, with weather ranging from blizzards to tornadoes. There were two rounds of weather that occurred across Southeast Michigan, the first round of severe weather raced northeast across the area as storms traveled at 100 mph! The second round of severe weather, which is what brought the tornadoes to the area, was a line of thunderstorms that moved northeast just ahead of a cold front. As this line moved across the area, there were multiple areas of circulation embedded with the line which resulted in four tornado touchdowns across Shiawassee and Genesee counties. Three out of the four tornadoes were weak and rated an EF-0. The tornado that hit near Vernon, MI, was rated an EF-2. Some debris (insulation/lighter metal) from the M-71 area in Vernon was carried 7 miles by the tornado. The Shiawassee Emergency Manager reported 135 structures, 94 homes, 4 businesses, 16 barns and 22 RVs were damaged or destroyed in the wake of the storms.

The tornado touched down on Nichols Rd just south of Corunna Rd before traveling east/northeast to Calkins Rd just east of Morrish Rd. Damage included downed and snapped trees, large limbs, and a collapsed pole barn. The tornado lifted near Jennings Rd just north of Pasadena Ave.

A tornado touched down near the intersection of Stanley and Bray Roads and quickly tracked off to the northeast. The storm lifted near the M-57 and Irish Road intersection. The tornado was strongest when it hit the Camelot Villas off of Genesee Road. A mobile home was flipped onto its side, with another mobile home partially blown off the foundation. Roof and siding damage was prevalent within the mobile park. Clusters of trees were snapped and tree tops sheared along the tornado path, with a couple other small trailers flipped.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS DTX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:01 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:30 UTC.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 22:10 UTC and running to 00:40 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 Slight Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:55 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.

Flint (FNT), 23 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Detroit radar (KDTX), 50 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:25 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 2019 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

31 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.