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EF2 tornado in Kalamazoo County, Michigan

Tornado June 19, 2009 · Kalamazoo County, Michigan

EF2
Rating
0.9 mi
Path length
200 yd
Path width
$40K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

Several trees and large branches were knocked down across North 28th Street near the tornado touchdown. The most extensive damage was located approximately two-miles northwest of Richland south of E C Avenue. The roof was torn off a ranch-style house and completely destroyed with pieces of truss carried one-half mile. Insulation was found over one-mile away from the tornado damaged home. The back deck of the home was destroyed with a large piece of the deck thrown approximately 100 yards. All trees were snapped or uprooted around the house with two uprooted trees carried 30-40 feet. Nearly 1.8 miles northwest of Richland, about 50% of trees were snapped or uprooted with numerous branches down along the tree line.

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 Richland Jct (42.3881, -85.4992).

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 171019. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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