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EF0 tornado in District of Columbia, District of Columbia

Tornado April 6, 2017 · District of Columbia, District of Columbia

EF0

Rating

6.5 mi

Whole path

25 yd

Path width

Injury

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Arlington County, Virginia → District of Columbia → District of Columbia; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 25 yards (0.01 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 National Weather Service in Baltimore MD/Washington DC has

confirmed an EF-0 tornado initiating in Joint Base Anacostia Bolling

and continuing into Anacostia DC on April 6, 2017. On the two mile

path, the weak tornado caused several small and midsized trees to be

snapped and uprooted on base in a convergent manner. Flags were

stripped off their posts in the central roundabout. A large soccer

net was thrown from the athletic field. Shingle damage was noted to

one of the buildings. As the tornado crossed over Interstate 295 it

likely lifted off the ground. Trees were snapped higher up on the

trunks on the hill just east of the interstate. An apartment complex

was unroofed on Stanton Rd SE. Media reported one person was injured

by flying drywall.

The wider storm

Cutoff low pressure was over the Ohio Valley. Another area of low pressure strengthened overhead on the occluded boundary. Warm and moist air from the south lead to an unstable atmosphere. Strong shear profiles were in place due to the cutoff low to the west. Strong lift associated with the developing low combined with strong shear and enough instability to produce severe thunderstorms and isolated tornadoes.

Began near Bolling Afb (38.8313, -77.0243).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 691228. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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