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EF0 tornado in Washington County, Indiana

Tornado July 20, 2018 · Washington County, Indiana

EF0
Rating
1.1 mi
Path length
75 yd
Path width
$50K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 75 yards (0.04 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

This very small, skipping tornado did its damage primarily on hilltops between Sparks Ferry Road and the intersection of State Road 135 and Lewellen Road. A few tree limbs and a small fence were downed near Sparks Ferry Road before it moved northeast over a large wooded area and open farmland. The next damage was concentrated about a quarter mile south of Water Tower Road, just west of Highway 135. Here the tornado tore multiple metal roof panels off a barn, blew the southward-facing overhead doors of a garage in, and tore the entrance door off the garage on the west side. The attached home sustained considerable siding and roof damage. A small play structure on the west side of the home was destroyed, with the debris blown to the west-northwest. Debris from the barn and home were scattered in a narrow path through row crops up to a third of a mile to the northeast, where a resident witnessed large sheets of roofing and siding fall into a hay field on the north side of Lewellen Road. A corn field on the south side of Lewellen Road showed cyclonic rotation in a narrow path of flattened corn. The maximum wind speeds with this tornado were estimated at 80 mph.

The wider storm

Rounds of severe storms hammered southern Indiana and central Kentucky on Friday, July 20, 2018, bringing very large hail, wind damage, heavy rain, and 2 confirmed tornadoes in Indiana.

The largest hail report the national weather service received was 4 inches in diameter (softball size) in Tompkinsville! The strongest measured wind gust was 70 mph at the Lexington Bluegrass Airport.

Began near Salem (38.6336, -86.1095).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

1 more tornado the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 763959. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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