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EF1 tornado in Lee County, Florida

Tornado September 16, 2007 · Lee County, Florida

EF1
Rating
4.4 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$4.0M
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 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

Thunderstorms continued to develop northward along the sea breeze front and produced a tornado that traveled due north from near the intersection of Rose Garden and and El Dorado Parkway West to near Skyline Boulevard and Veterans memorial Parkway. The damage path was less than the size of a single family home for most of the track and the average wind speed based on the damage was 65-75 MPH. The EF1 damage was of a home nearly cut in half by the tornado with wind speeds estimated at 105 MPH. The lower than expected wind estimate was a result of older building codes and the roof blowout occurred as a result of a large picture window being blown in. About 138 homes were damaged. Six homes received moderate damage and one home was destroyed. The tornado snapped several power poles and damaged numerous fences, sheds and trees. Several vehicles and boats were flipped over. There was one injury as a gentleman looked outside to see the tornado and was struck by debris. Thirty people were displaced from their homes. Damage estimates were based on a survey completed by Cape Coral Emergency Management.

The wider storm

A waterspout and at least two tornadoes formed along the west Florida coast sea breeze front in the Fort Myers area.

Began near Cape Coral (26.5500, -81.9800).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Lee County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 49851. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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