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EF1 tornado in Sarasota County, Florida

Tornado June 23, 2009 · Sarasota County, Florida

EF1

Rating

0.6 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

$350K

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 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

The tornado touched down along Fruitville Road, snapping a few trees, and then traveled south into a plant farm. It tore two metal beams from the foundation of a metal building on the farm and then moved across a field of more than two dozen greenhouses, destroying or seriously damaging all but one. The tornado then continued south into a wooded area, where it damaged a few more trees before lifting. Winds were estimated around 95mph.

The wider storm

A frontal boundary gradually settled across the area on the 23rd and 24th. The energy associated with the boundary combined with warm afternoon temperatures to produce scattered thunderstorms mainly along and ahead of the boundary. Several thunderstorms produced large hail, strong damaging winds and two tornadoes.

Began near Hidden River (27.3394, -82.3286).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Citrus County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 184381. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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