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Flint-Beecher Tornado Outbreak. June 8 th , 1953. Background Information. Background Information.
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Flint-Beecher Tornado Outbreak June 8th, 1953
Background Information • On June 8th, 1953 and June 9th, 1953, a large tornado outbreak occurred, with the most notable tornadoes occurring in the form of an F5 tornado near Flint, Michigan on June 8th and an F4 tornado near Worcester, Massachusetts on June 9th. The first day of the outbreak however proved to be incredibly prolific in the production of significant tornadoes in Eastern Michigan. That day, one F5, three F4’s, three F3’s and one F2 touched down. The following is a brief synopsis, and then meteorological analysis of the events that occurred on June 8th. As it turns out, conditions were outstandingly favorable for the formation of tornadoes that day. In total, some 125 people would day in the outbreak in Michigan alone.
Background Information • The Flint-Beecher tornado was the most notable of the tornadoes that touched down that day. That evening, the Weather Bureau, the predecessor to the National Weather Service recorded surface observations of a 78º temperature, a 71º dewpoint, and a surface pressure of 978.32 hPa.
Background Information • The first bulleting for severe weather was posted at 7:30 pm that evening, an hour before the tornado was first sighted. At 8:30, the tornado touched down and moved towards Beecher, a Flint suburb, and soon grew into a monster, with a width of 833 yards. The storm moved at about 35 mph, not particularly fast as far as tornadoes go. Residents however had little to no warning, as warnings were not easily disseminated at the time. Many residents only had their own eyes to warn them, and eye witness accounts stated that several intense lightning strikes accompanied a “black-yellow-green” sky, just before touchdown. The tornado itself was described as like “dense, black smoke”and contained multiple vortices. The tornado stayed on the ground, annihilating anything in its path for 27 miles, before finally dissipating over Lake Huron.
250 hPa Analysis • The animation on the previous page contains a 250 hPa analysis, which has the parameters of geopotential heights, vorticity and wind. In the days leading up to, as well as the day of the Flint-Beecher tornado, the large scale upper level pattern present over the United States was characterized by large scale eastern ridging. This was very significant in the formation of the outbreak of storms on June 8th, as the ridge over the eastern US actually strengthened throughout the period, causing short wave impulses to ride over top of the ridge towards the US/Canada border region. One shortwave in particular progressed it’s way over the ridge and intensified greatly, bringing significant upper level energy into the region.
