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EF2 tornado in Allegan County, Michigan

Tornado June 19, 2009 · Allegan County, Michigan

EF2
Rating
5.9 mi
Path length
400 yd
Path width
$250K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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

Damage to both trees and structures were found along the tornado path. A Circa 1940 pole barn was destroyed and numerous trees were snapped or uprooted just over a half a mile west of Chicora north of 108th Avenue. Further down the tornado's path, garage doors were blown out and carried 300 yards while two boats were blown out of the garage. The house suffered 80% shingle loss with one 2-foot diameter hole in the roof on the home's west side. This was approximately 0.35 miles north of Chicora. The most extensive damage occurred approximately one mile northeast of Chicora along 42nd Street. A roof was partially torn off of a house. A barn was blown about 20-feet off of its foundation. There were several telephone poles snapped with wires wrapped around a tree. A roof was ripped off a small unoccupied house with one wall collapsed. Debris was lofted up to one-half mile across a field. More shingle loss was found on the west side of a home located two-miles northeast of Chicora. Nearly 80% shingle loss was witnessed. Several utility poles were snapped with widespread tree damage through the area. More damage to a home was observed about a quarter-mile west of Schermerhorn Lake. The damage happened when numerous falling trees crushed it. One-quarter mile of 39th street was blocked by fallen trees. The trees were piled up to 15-feet deep on the road. As the tornado was weakening, a 30-foot metal tower was bent over half way up. This was located near the intersection of 37th Street and 109th Avenue. Minor roof damage was also noted to a home in this area.

The wider storm

Thunderstorms developed and moved across Lake Michigan during the evening hours on June 19th. Several hours of intense rainfall occurred starting around 7:00 PM EST. The ground was already saturated from early morning thunderstorms that produced very heavy rainfall. In addition to the heavy rain, severe thunderstorms and tornadoes accompanied the thunderstorms.

Began near Chicora (42.4737, -86.0092).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 170980. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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