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EF1 tornado in Lee County, Florida

Tornado January 15, 2016 · Lee County, Florida

EF1

Rating

0.2 mi

Path length

45 yd

Path width

$200K

Damage as recorded

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 45 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

NWS Storm Survey detected EF-1 tornado damage across a small portion of Lee County. A roof was partially torn off a condo in the Whiskey Creek area. Damage was also seen to a few palm trees in the area. Four structures sustained damage.

The wider storm

A low pressure system offshore of Alabama lifted a warm front across Florida during the late morning hours. The southern portion of the peninsula was in the warm sector with a very moist and unstable airmass in place. Severe thunderstorms produced areas of straight-line wind damage along with a brief tornado.

Began near Whiskey Creek (26.5503, -81.9126).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 609325. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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