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EF1 tornado in Washington County, Indiana

Tornado January 29, 2008 · Washington County, Indiana

EF1

Rating

10.7 mi

Path length

200 yd

Path width

$60K

Damage as recorded

$50K

Crop damage

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

As a squall line crossed Washington County, a small tornado touched down intermittently within the down burst area. The most intense damage occurred near the intersection of Skylight and Cauble Roads, where several hardwood trees were snapped off, numerous trees were uprooted in different directions, a farm outbuilding was collapsed, and metal sheeting from a well-constructed barn was thrown 200 yards into the trees downwind.

On Cindy Lane near Springhouse Road, a large storage shed was shifted 40 degrees and a well-constructed home had significant loss of roofing.

The wider storm

A powerful cold front sparked a lengthy squall line that crossed all of southern Indiana on the evening of January 29. A large number of locations had 60 to as much as 100 mph winds, causing extensive property damage. There were also a few small tornado spin-ups, one of which caused a fatality when a tree fell onto a mobile home near Henryville, Indiana.

Began near Becks Mill (38.5299, -86.1105).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

EF1 Clark County 1 dead EF1 Scott County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 72174. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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