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EF1 tornado in Bingham County, Idaho

Tornado May 31, 2018 · Bingham County, Idaho

EF1
Rating
15.0 mi
Whole path
25 yd
Path width
$300
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Bingham County → Jefferson County; 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 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

A tornado crossed portions of the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) around East and Middle Buttes to the north and east across US 20 (including near the MFC facilities) between 400 and 430 pm MDT. Due to sparseness of population and terrain, the only damage observed was at mile marker 277 on US Highway 20 at approximately 419 pm MDT. At this point, large sections of 2 snow fences were heavily damaged Multiple steel beems were bent and twisted to varying degrees, with portions of those beems that were below the surface and moved approximately one inch. The horizontal part of these fences, make of vinyl and steel cable, were ripped apart and strewn for several yards. Large metal pieces used to hold these together were snapped and/or thrown several yards away from the fence. Other indications of tornado damage included a sign snapped off at the ground, sagebrush that was partially or completely ripped from the ground, and several small size lava rocks tossed an unknown distance.

Based on that evidence, the tornado was assigned an EF-1 rating.

The wider storm

Large hail, high winds, tornadoes and heavy rain all occurred in southeast Idaho on the afternoon of the 31st. Much of it occurred with one supercell which tracked northeast throughout the region.

Began near Atomic City (43.4709, -112.7636).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 760377. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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