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EF0 tornado in McPherson County, Kansas

Tornado June 20, 2009 · McPherson County, Kansas

EF0

Rating

4.5 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

$200K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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

Three barns were completely destroyed, a silo was blown into a cornfield, a center-pivot irrigation system was destroyed, and 26 power poles were downed. Additionally, an SUV was thrown into a wheat field. The McPherson Sentinel contributed to this report.

The wider storm

Strong to severe thunderstorms ignited across portions of central, south-central and east-central Kansas during the afternoon and evening hours on the 20th, along and north of a warm front. The thunderstorms became supercellular as they moved north of the warm front, producing a handful of tornadoes across portions of Barton, McPherson and Marion counties. Severe straight-line winds also slammed the community of McPherson, producing some damage across town.

Began near Mc Pherson Arpt (38.3585, -97.7809).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

5 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 McPherson County EF0 Lincoln County EF0 Lincoln County EF0 Marion County EF0 Barton County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 166702. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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