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EF2 tornado in Edmunds County, South Dakota

Tornado May 22, 2010 · Edmunds County, South Dakota

EF2
Rating
18.6 mi
Whole path
200 yd
Path width

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Edmunds County → McPherson County → Brown County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

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

The seventh tornado formed in northeast Edmunds county and tracked northeast. The tornado took off sections from the roof of a barn. The tornado then tracked through primarily crop and pasture land to near Deerfield Colony and into southeast Mcpherson county. Sporadic tree damage was observed along the tornado path with many wooden power poles completely sheared off. Wind speeds with this tornado were estimated between 111 and 120 mph.

The wider storm

Several supercell thunderstorms developed along a very strong warm front and produced nine tornadoes from Akaska to Bowdle to Hecla. The largest of the tornadoes was an EF4 tornado which occurred near Bowdle. This tornado produced devastating damage in the Bowdle area. The other tornadoes ranged from EF0 to EF2 and caused extensive tree and building damage. Nearly one-hundred power poles were downed along with several high line towers leaving nearly a thousand customers without power. Also, very strong straight line winds and large hail up to the size of golfballs affected parts of the area causing some damage.

Began near Ipswich Taylor Arpt (45.5400, -99.0100).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 236004. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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