Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 2025
EF0 tornado, Fraser to Cady, Michigan, June 18, 2025
From Fraser to Cady, this EF0 tornado ran 2.4 miles across Macomb County on June 18, 2025, touching down at 5:02 PM EDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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
- June 18, 2025
- Touchdown
- 5:02 PM EDT (21:02 UTC)
- Lifted
- 5:10 PM EDT (21:10 UTC)
- On the ground
- 8 minutes
- Path length
- 2.4 miles (3.8 km)
- Path width
- 400 yards (366 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Macomb County
- Touchdown point
- 42.534, -82.948
- Lift-off point
- 42.567, -82.937
- Record number
- 2506181502-01
The damage survey
15 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 70 mph.
- Numerous downed power lines and trees in the neighborhood.
- Video of tornado and debris.
- Tree was uprooted and fell south.
- Numerous large limbs down along Blairmoor Drive.
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
Multiple rounds of thunderstorms impacted portions of Southeast Michigan on June 18, 2025. The first round consisted of sub-severe pop-up thunderstorms during the morning hours. These produced pockets of heavy downpours but otherwise brought some relief to areas that had seen relatively dry conditions in recent days. Showers expanded in coverage across the southern part of the state by late morning to early afternoon as a disturbance aloft ushered in a more organized cluster of thunderstorms. These were also sub-severe, but the presence of environmental vorticity caused a weak tornado to quickly develop as several outflow boundaries collided near Fraser in Macomb County. These storms also produced torrential downpours. Nearly stationary storms dumped 3 to 5 inches of rain over a localized area in central Macomb County where flash flooding occurred early in the afternoon, closing roads and leading to several water rescues. A lull in activity occurred during the mid afternoon before a third round of thunderstorms arrived in the evening as a low pressure system approached from Indiana. This line of storms caused isolated occurrences of wind damage across southern parts of the state.
The tornado started north of Masonic and east of Utica Road and Garfield Road, in the vicinity of General Street. The tornado moved north crossing 14 Mile Road and affected about 15 to 20 homes, with shingles blown off their roofs. The most concentrated damage was in this neighborhood, with a lot of tree damage as well. The most |significant structural damage that was noted was 1 house losing a section of its roof. The tornado continued to move north crossing 15 Mile Road causing additional tree|damage before dissipating just south of the Metro Parkway. Estimated peak winds of 70 MPH with the tornado.
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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.
The county was under a severe thunderstorm watch, issued at 20:12 UTC and running to 02:00 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:12 UTC | 17:22 UTC | Tornado Warning | DTX |
| 17:26 UTC | 20:17 UTC | Flood Advisory | DTX |
| 17:42 UTC | 20:18 UTC | Flash Flood Warning | DTX |
| 20:12 UTC | 02:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Watch | DTX |
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 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 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
9.0 hours before the tornado, 44 km from the path. June 18, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 765 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -46 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 589 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 905 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 20 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 24 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.4
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.5 K/km
Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z
3.0 hours after it, 44 km from the path. June 19, 2025.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 447 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -43 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1428 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 934 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 8 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 32 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 35 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.6
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.7 K/km
The radar
The Detroit radar (KDTX), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 21:00 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 18:06 UTC | FLASH FLOOD | 2 Nw Clinton Township | Macomb, MI | Social media photo of vehicles in wheel well deep water on Garfield Rd near 19 Mile Rd. |
| 18:15 UTC | FLOOD | 1 Ne Chesterfield | Macomb, MI | Gratiot Rd impassable at 23 Mile Rd due to flooding. |
| 18:28 UTC | RAIN 2.84 | 1 Sw Waldenburg | Macomb, MI | 4.5 hour rainfall total. Street flooding reported in the surrounding area. |
| 19:47 UTC | RAIN 3.71 | Macomb Township | Macomb, MI | 3 Hour Rainfall Total with 3.61 inches between 1210 and 150 PM. |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 2025 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 18, 2025
29 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 18 | 1:04 AM CDT | EF1 | Cherokee, OK | 7.7 | 1,000 | $50,000 | ||
| June 18 | 1:14 AM CDT | EF1 | Adair, OK | 8.8 | 750 | $100,000 | ||
| June 18 | 1:20 AM CDT | EF1 | Benton, AR | 3.2 | 800 | |||
| June 18 | 1:29 AM CDT | EF1 | Benton, AR | 1.7 | 300 | $500,000 | ||
| June 18 | 1:54 AM CDT | EF1 | Washington, AR | 2.3 | 300 | $25,000 | ||
| June 18 | 10:55 AM CDT | EF1 | Calhoun, MO to IL | 3.6 | 100 | |||
| June 18 | 11:30 AM CDT | Unrated | Scott, IL | 1.5 | 10 | |||
| June 18 | 11:53 AM CDT | EF0 | Morgan, IL | 4.7 | 80 | |||
| June 18 | 11:54 AM CDT | EF1 | Scott, IL | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| June 18 | 12:02 PM CDT | EF1 | Morgan, IL | 3.9 | 75 | |||
| June 18 | 12:07 PM CDT | EF2 | Morgan, IL | 6.9 | 300 | |||
| June 18 | 12:15 PM CDT | EF1 | Morgan, IL | 7.6 | 50 | 1 | ||
| June 18 | 12:25 PM CDT | EF1 | Sangamon, IL | 7.4 | 200 | |||
| June 18 | 12:29 PM CDT | Unrated | Cass, IL | 1.4 | 10 | |||
| June 18 | 12:37 PM CDT | Unrated | Menard, IL | 3.0 | 10 | |||
| June 18 | 12:41 PM CDT | EF1 | Menard, IL | 1.4 | 200 | |||
| June 18 | 2:15 PM EDT | EF0 | Anne Arundel, MD | 0.1 | 75 | $250,000 | ||
| June 18 | 1:18 PM CDT | EF0 | Mason, IL | 0.1 | 100 | |||
| June 18 | 1:50 PM CDT | EF1 | DeWitt, IL | 3.5 | 100 | |||
| June 18 | 1:56 PM CDT | Unrated | Tazewell, IL | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| June 18 | 3:02 PM EDT | EF0 | Tippecanoe, IN | 0.6 | 30 | $20,000 | ||
| June 18 | 3:10 PM EDT | EF0 | Tippecanoe, IN | 0.3 | 20 | $25,000 | ||
| June 18 | 2:13 PM CDT | Unrated | McLean, IL | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| June 18 | 6:10 PM CDT | Unrated | Jackson, OK | 1.0 | 20 | |||
| June 18 | 7:44 PM EDT | EF0 | Ottawa, OH | 0.5 | 10 | $85,000 | ||
| June 18 | 7:50 PM EDT | EF0 | Ottawa, OH | 2.9 | 10 | $49,000 | ||
| June 18 | 8:26 PM EDT | EF1 | Huron, OH | 9.3 | 200 | $40,000 | ||
| June 18 | 8:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Hickman, TN | 6.9 | 175 | $250,000 | ||
| June 18 | 8:37 PM CDT | EF0 | Macon, TN | 4.3 | 300 | $250,000 |
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.