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EF0 tornado in Flathead County, Montana

Tornado July 18, 2007 · Flathead County, Montana

EF0

Rating

8.0 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

$8K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 50 yards (0.03 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What EF0 means. On the Enhanced Fujita scale, EF0 is light damage: shingles and siding peeled, gutters torn, branches broken, consistent with estimated gusts of 65–85 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 public reported a waterspout on Flathead lake along the Flathead/Lake County line. A sailboat at this location was spun around at least once in a counterclockwise direction and then sank.

The wider storm

On July 18, an intensely strong shortwave trough moved to the northeast across Western Montana during the late afternoon and evening hours. The breaking of a strong mid level cap released copious amount of low level instability which aided in the rapid development of severe thunderstorm super cells.

Began near Bigfork (47.9632, -114.1362).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Lake County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 47111. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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