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EF2 tornado in Massac County, Illinois

Tornado February 29, 2012 · Massac County, Illinois

EF2

Rating

2.4 mi

Path length

150 yd

Path width

$50K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 150 yards (0.09 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 tornado crossed the Ohio River from McCracken County, Kentucky. The tornado crossed U.S. Highway 45 before it lifted near the airport. Trees were uprooted and snapped. Barns and sheds were damaged or destroyed. The average path width was 125 yards. Peak winds were estimated near 120 mph.

The wider storm

A squall line with embedded sustained supercells crossed southern Illinois. The embedded supercells raced east-northeast at 60 to 70 mph, while the line moved southeast at a slower rate. The storms strengthened as they encountered richer low-level moisture, with surface dew points around 60 degrees spreading rapidly north-northeastward up the Mississippi Valley. Intense low to mid-level wind fields maintained the intensity of tornadic storms despite weak instability due to lack of solar heating. A south-southwesterly low level jet from 60 to 70 knots veered to west-southwest around 75 knots at 500 mb.

Began near Metropolis Muni Arpt (37.1730, -88.7846).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF4 Saline County 8 dead EF2 Williamson County EF2 Pulaski County EF2 Cape Girardeau County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 359693. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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