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EF1 tornado in St. Joseph County, Michigan

Tornado July 12, 2023 · St. Joseph County, Michigan

EF1

Rating

2.9 mi

Whole path

50 yd

Path width

$50K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through St. Joseph County → Branch County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 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

A tornado quickly developed almost directly over a storage facility on the east side of Colon in St. Joseph county. Garage doors were blown in and then a significant loss of roof decking and metal covering occurred. This wood and metal debris was lofted, twisted, and deposited both to the east and north up to 200 yards away in nearby fields. The tornado crossed into Branch county with sporadic tree damage noted on Ambs Road, South Culver Road, and Jackson Road, where large branches were down, trees uprooted, or trees were snapped several feet off the ground. The tornado topped a number of trees within a tree grove east of Jackson Road, but south of Wattles

Road before dissipating. The tornado was on the ground for 0.9 miles in St Joseph county and 2.0 miles in Branch county for a total of 2.9 miles in length.

The wider storm

A tornado damaged a storage facility on the east side of Colon and then caused sporadic damage to trees along its 2.92 mile track.

Began near Colon (41.9527, -85.3099).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1114678. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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