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EF2 tornado in San Juan County, Utah

Tornado September 13, 2025 · San Juan County, Utah

EF2

Rating

1.1 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

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 EF2 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF2 is considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, consistent with estimated gusts of 111–135 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 second tornado prompted a damage survey conducted by local emergency

management and Navajo Nation emergency management, along with local law enforcement. The data from the survey was relayed to the National Weather Service: storm damage was concentrated on an area centered near 37.33071N / 109.3259W and included; a home completely destroyed, two (2) 800-gallon water barrels were missing, a three-bedroom home was completely destroyed, a sheep corral and barn were destroyed, two (2) horse trailers were damaged, a cow corral, along with damage to three (3) vehicles.

The wider storm

A round of severe thunderstorms moved across a portion of southeast Utah which generated two confirmed tornadoes in San Juan County, Utah on Saturday, Sept 13, 2025. The first tornado was a quick spin-up and very short lived, as noted by a resident's video footage narration, along with information from local emergency management and law enforcement.

A second, more well developed tornado, developed five minutes after the first tornado dissipated and formed in a location near the first tornado. The second tornado was well documented by local officials and video footage to have remained nearly stationary throughout its duration before finally dissipating. Both events were located north of Montezuma Creek.

The entire event lasted around one hour and 20 minutes, with the first tornado

beginning around 12:30pm and the second tornado dissipating by 1:50pm MDT.

Began near Montezuma Creek (37.3500, -109.2300).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EFU San Juan County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 1295635. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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