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EF2 tornado in Posey County, Indiana

Tornado March 2, 2012 · Posey County, Indiana

EF2

Rating

6.1 mi

Path length

140 yd

Path width

$500K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 140 yards (0.08 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 began 4.5 miles west southwest of Wadesville and ended 0.6 miles east northeast of Blairsville. The tornado destroyed 1 wood frame house and moderately damaged several others. Several equipment sheds or garages were damaged or destroyed. Several grain bins were destroyed. Over 100 trees were snapped or uprooted. The tornado, which was observed by numerous individuals including storm spotters, had peak winds near 125 mph.

The wider storm

Supercells developed and moved across southwest Indiana. The supercells raced east-northeast at 50 to 60 mph as a strong storm system moved northeast from Oklahoma to lower Michigan with it's associated cold front sweeping east across the Ohio and Tennessee valleys. Strong wind shear with the storm system combined with warm, moist and unstable air provided the fuel for supercell thunderstorms.

Began near Springfield (38.0830, -87.8494).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Vanderburgh County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 373982. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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