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EF1 tornado in Pawnee County, Kansas

Tornado June 20, 2009 · Pawnee County, Kansas

EF1

Rating

5.0 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

$50K

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

Several outbuildings were destroyed by this tornado. It was video taped by folks that were about 2 miles away and they could hardly believe what they were seeing. In fact, several times they doubted it was a tornado but it was clearly a tornado that traveled 5.1 miles north-northeast and heavily damaged two well built and new outbuildings.

The wider storm

An upper level low with cold air aloft helped to produce low-topped showers and thunderstorms, some of which produced small tornadoes.

Began near Zook (38.0070, -99.1080).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Lane County EF0 Kiowa County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 186090. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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