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EF2 tornado in Lee County, Florida

Tornado January 9, 2016 · Lee County, Florida

EF2

Rating

3.4 mi

Path length

182 yd

Path width

Injuries

$2.0M

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 182 yards (0.10 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

NWS Storm Survey revealed EF-2 tornado damage in the western sections of Cape Coral. The tornado damaged 178 structures in total. One home was completely destroyed while 14 sustained major damage and another 163 sustained minor damage. The minor damage mainly consisted of roof damage and destroyed pool cages. Over 100 power poles were knocked down along the tornado's path along with many trees. The tornado injured three people while it was on the ground for about 7 minutes.

The wider storm

A band of showers and thunderstorms moved across southwest Florida ahead of a cold front. One of these storms produced an EF-2 tornado and severe wind gusts in Lee county.

Began near Matlacha (26.5700, -82.0370).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 607553. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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