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EF1 tornado in Calhoun County, Michigan

Tornado June 5, 2010 · Calhoun County, Michigan

EF1

Rating

1.6 mi

Path length

300 yd

Path width

$2.0M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF1 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF1 is moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 86–110 mph. The rating comes from a survey of the worst damage after the storm, not from a wind measurement, so it says as much about what the tornado hit as about how strong it was.

What the National Weather Service wrote

The tornado touched down near the intersection of Capitol Avenue and East Stafford Avenue just east of Goguac Lake and moved east just missing Riverside Elementary School and then moving along Chapel Hill Drive where it reached its peak intensity. The tornado then weakened as it moved across Interstate 194 before finally dissipating as it crossed 6 1/2 mile road. Three houses and Chapel Hill Methodist Church suffered partial loss of their roofs which along with approximately 100 snapped and uprooted trees resulted in a rating of EF1 along Chapel Hill Drive. The remainder of the track was rated EF0 where clusters of trees were uprooted or snapped with only minor damage occurring to houses in the path.

The wider storm

A large area of thunderstorms spread over the area ahead of a warm front on Saturday evening. The severe weather occurred along and south of the Interstate 94 corridor. A storm passing just south of downtown Battle Creek produced a tornado just after 11 PM EST. Parts of Calhoun and Kalamazoo counties also received heavy rain that produced flash flooding.

Began near Springfield Place (42.2902, -85.1993).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 224402. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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