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EF0 tornado in Pierce County, Wisconsin

Tornado September 20, 2018 · Pierce County, Wisconsin

EF0

Rating

3.2 mi

Whole path

100 yd

Path width

$5K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Goodhue County, Minnesota → Pierce County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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 is a continuation of a tornado that tracked from Goodhue County in Minnesota, then across the Mississippi River near Diamond Bluff. This tornado tracked for 0.6 miles in Pierce County before dissipating. EF0 damage was observed from trees and power lines based on a storm survey.

The wider storm

During the afternoon of Thursday, September 20th, a warm front lifted northward across far southern Minnesota. By the late afternoon, the warm front lied from just south of the Minnesota River, northeast to around Wabasha along the Mississippi River.

Several thunderstorms developed in southwest Minnesota, and northwest Iowa. These storms moved into far southern Minnesota and quickly intensified and raced off to the east-northeast along, and north of the warm front.

A storm survey indicated that a tornado formed just east of the Mississippi River near Red Wing, and tracked into Pierce county. Another tornado damaged the town of Ellsworth. There was also sporadic wind damage around the city of Spring Valley.

Began near Diamond Bluff (44.6433, -92.6262).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

EF0 Pierce County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 779452. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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