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EF0 tornado in Washoe County, Nevada

Tornado September 13, 2017 · Washoe County, Nevada

EF0

Rating

2.0 mi

Path length

50 yd

Path width

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

North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District reported a confirmed tornado/waterspout a mile off the northeastern shore of Lake Tahoe near Sand Harbor, Nevada. The position of the tornado was estimated based on a video and terrain features. Numerous other spotter photos also showed a well-defined spray ring on the water surface of Lake Tahoe. The tornado was determined to be an EF-0 as no damage was reported. This tornado was associated with a supercell thunderstorm.

The wider storm

Strong Thunderstorms developed over the Eastern Sierra and Northwestern Nevada on the afternoon of September 13th as an upper-level area of low pressure moved over south-central California.

Began near Incline Vlg (39.1785, -119.9606).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 722955. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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