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EF0 tornado in Manatee County, Florida

Tornado August 26, 2017 · Manatee County, Florida

EF0
Rating
0.3 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$20K
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

A narrow path of damage was found in Samoset, with minor damage occurring at a County Public Works Facility. A couple of witnesses also reported seeing a funnel cloud in the area. Aluminum debris was thrown around, and several trees and large branches were knocked down. The time of the tornado was estimated from radar.

The wider storm

A trough of low pressure developed over the eastern Gulf of Mexico and passed east across the Florida Peninsula on the 26th through 28th of August, bringing abundant tropical moisture into the area. Heavy rain fell across the area each day, with some areas seeing over 16 inches of rain totals throughout the event. Flood waters entered numerous homes in Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, and Lee counties, as well as making numerous roads impassable and stalling vehicles. The flooding also caused two separate drowning deaths in the area.

In addition to the flooding, the storms produced some wind damage and a brief EF-0 tornado in Manatee County.

Began near Samoset (27.4769, -82.5540).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 717103. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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