EF3 Gaylord tornado, Michigan, May 20, 2022

1. EF065 to 85 mph

   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 mphthis tornado

   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

EF3

Date

May 20, 2022

Touchdown

3:35 PM EDT (19:35 UTC)

Lifted

3:57 PM EDT (19:57 UTC)

On the ground

22 minutes

Path length

17.5 miles (28.2 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

44

Property damage

$50 million

Counties

Otsego and Antrim counties

Touchdown point

44.974, -84.879

Lift-off point

45.056, -84.541

Record number

2205201335-01

37 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS APX, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF3. The highest wind the damage implies is 150 mph.

• Maurice’s back wall failed towards street, then beams/debris/interior walls blown and warped in opposite direction. Significant roof covering removed and back wall collapsed at Hobby Lobby. North-facing wall of Hobby Lobby compromised, but not collapsed.
• Splatter on house on north side of the road.
• Unknown number of injuries. About 200 yards wide
• Numerous RVs thrown, including one across I-75.

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

Multiple thunderstorms tracked across northern Michigan during the afternoon, including a supercell thunderstorm that produced the EF-3 tornado that hit the town of Gaylord along with very large hail in other parts of the area. ||Setting the stage for severe weather was a trough that rotated across the upper Midwest that developed and strengthened surface low pressure west of Lake Michigan. This system helped draw a warm, moist airmass northward across the state that helped provide the instability necessary to support severe thunderstorms later in the day. Storms initially formed along the cold front across Wisconsin during the morning hours and moved northeast across Lake Michigan, making it into the forecast area by early afternoon. The strongest line segment generated a measured wind gust of 76 mph at Frankfort Light and continued to produce damaging wind gusts across Leelanau and Antrim counties as it quickly moved northeast.||As this segment moved further away from the cold front, it began to transition into a supercell thunderstorm. This storm moved east-northeast across a very favorable environment in place across northern lower Michigan, eventually producing a tornado that caused considerable damage in the city of Gaylord. This supercell continued to trek across the area, producing baseball-sized hail in Posen.||For additional context, this was the first time in reliable recorded history (since 1950) that Gaylord was hit by a tornado. This was also the first significant tornado (EF2 or greater) in the county warning area since October 18, 2007.

This tornado formed in Antrim county 4 miles east of Alba and continued into Otsego county 100 yards SE of the Alba Rd/Old Alba Rd intersection. The tornado continued to move east northeast for almost 16 additional miles before dissipating around 1.75 miles northeast of Sparr. The tornado was rated EF3 in Otsego county based on damage surveyed in multiple locations around the Gaylord area. The first of these locations was damage in the Nottingham Forest manufactured home community. Multiple units were completely destroyed with debris blown away from the original locations of the units (DI 4, DOD 12). The second location was the business district of Gaylord where the buildings of Hobby Lobby, Maurices, and Jimmy Johns experienced collapses of exterior walls where interior walls remained standing (DI 10, DOD 8). The last location, which had the highest estimated wind speed of 150 mph, was damage found to homes on Berkshire Ln on the northeast side of Gaylord. Most exterior walls were collapsed and only partial interior walls were left standing (DI 2, DOD 8). The tornado dissipated at 1457 EST about 1.75 miles northeast of Sparr. Two fatalities were reported in the Nottingham Forest community, along with 44 injuries reported from various locations around Gaylord. The maximum path width in Otsego county was 200 yards.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 17:55 UTC and running to 22:17 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 16:26 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.

Gaylord (GLR), 1 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The NCL Michigan radar (KAPX), 12 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:35 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 2022 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are

1 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.