Tornado Touchdown Confirmed June 12th in Mason County
After further investigation, the NWS has now confirmed a tornado touchdown in the Nordhouse Dunes region of Manistee National Forest north of Ludington. The tornado has been rated an EF1 on the Enhanced Fujita scale with maximum winds between 86 and 110 mph. The track is about 1.3 miles long with a maximum width of about 300 yards. It touchdown on the beach at 9:26 PM EDT on June 12th and was on the ground for about two minutes before lifting.
Initial aerial photography of the forest blowdown recieved by the NWS was interpreted as straightline wind damage, but recent ground surveys have confirmed a pattern of damage consistent with a broadly rotating wind. The tornado formed at the head of a bowing thunderstorm segment. Bowing thunderstorms can produce strong straightline winds of 100 mph, but can also produce short lived tornadoes of similar strength.
NWS Doppler Radar detected the circulation associated with the bowing thunderstorm prompting a Tornado Warning at 9:16 PM EDT on Thursday - June 12. 2008. Radar was used to track the storm east-northeast into Manistee County where the storm produced another tornado. The storm that produced the tornado was the lead in a series of thunderstorms that dropped nearly a foot of rain in the northern half of the county in little more than six hours. Numerous roads were washed out and homes flooded by the heavy rains.
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