Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2021

EF0 tornado, Corinth, Michigan, April 10, 2021

This EF0 tornado ran 0.6 miles across Kent County on April 10, 2021, touching down at 4:18 PM EDT and reaching 65 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $75,000 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
April 10, 2021
Touchdown
4:18 PM EDT (20:18 UTC)
Lifted
4:19 PM EDT (20:19 UTC)
On the ground
1 minutes
Path length
0.6 miles (0.9 km)
Path width
65 yards (59 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$75,000
County
Kent County
Touchdown point
42.784, -85.638
Lift-off point
42.790, -85.646
Record number
2104101418-01

What the Weather Service recorded

A NWS storm survey concluded that the tornado was an EF-0.

A very small, brief, and weak tornado touched down in the Preservation Lakes subdivision in southern Kent county just south of Cutlerville and east of Byron Center in Gaines Township, causing damage to 6 to 12 homes. The NWS in Grand Rapids surveyed the damage. The most notable damage was a small portion of a roof torn off one home, some siding stripped off two homes, and a partially pushed in garage door. Security camera/doorbell video revealed that objects were lofted and carried through the air. At least two vehicles sustained damage from being struck by flying debris such as lawn chairs.

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)ExpiredProductOffice
20:26 UTC20:53 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGRR

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 19:58 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), 12:00Z

8.3 hours before the tornado, 181 km from the path. April 10, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2021-04-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -59292, lifted condensation level 1320 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 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, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 2021-04-10The 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 128 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-59292 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1320 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
128 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
225 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

3.7 hours after it, 181 km from the path. April 11, 2021.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2021-04-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 66 joules per kilogram, CIN -66, lifted condensation level 1625 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, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 2021-04-11The 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 186 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 44 knots.193958Sfc1 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
66 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-66 J/kg
Surface CAPE
39 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1625 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
44 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
186 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
227 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
7.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Grand Rapids radar (KGRR), 14 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:20 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
20:02 UTCTSTM WND GST 411 Ene AlleganAllegan, MIMESONET STATION EW9318 ALLEGAN.
20:19 UTCTSTM WND DMG3 Sse CutlervilleKent, MITREES AND WIRES DOWN WITH POWER OUTAGE. VINYL SIDING PEELED OFF HOUSE. SMALL SECTION OF ROOF BLOWN OFF HOUSE. NEAR 92ND ST AND EASTERN AVE.
20:19 UTCTORNADO3 Sse CutlervilleKent, MIA VERY SMALL, BRIEF, AND WEAK TORNADO TOUCHED DOWN IN THE PRESERVATION LAKES SUBDIVISION IN SOUTHERN KENT COUNTY, CAUSING DAMAGE TO 6 TO 12 HOMES. PATH LENGTH WAS ABOUT 1/2 MILE, WIDTH 65 YARDS, AND IT WAS ON THE GROUND
20:38 UTCHAIL 0.252 Sw East Grand RapidsKent, MI
20:58 UTCTSTM WND GST 422 Ese Kent CityKent, MI

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

This ground now

The live radar over the trackEvery 2021 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 10, 2021

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 101:26 AM CDTEF1Saint Landry Parish, LA3.6187$20,000
April 102:06 AM CDTEF3Saint Landry Parish, LA8.720017$1.0 million
April 106:23 AM CDTEF1Walton, FL15.8100$10,000
April 108:42 AM CDTEF2Bay, FL0.5100$500,000
April 108:45 AM CDTEF0Bay, FL0.525
April 109:00 AM CDTEF1Bay, FL0.330$100,000
April 1011:28 AM EDTEF0Leon, FL2.425
April 105:45 PM EDTEF1Manatee, FL0.5501$1.0 million
April 105:50 PM EDTEF0Oconee, SC1.220$30,000
April 106:38 PM EDTEF0Spartanburg, SC1.120
April 107:21 PM EDTEF0Rutherford, NC0.120$5,000
April 108:10 PM EDTEF0McDowell, NC0.620$1,000

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.