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EF1 tornado in Washington County, Minnesota

Tornado July 28, 2019 · Washington County, Minnesota

EF1
Rating
8.2 mi
Whole path
440 yd
Path width
$2.0M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Washington County → Chisago County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 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

An EF1 tornado spun up on the southwest side of Sylvan Lake and continued northeast in a broken path through Bone Lake, and moved into Chisago County on 240th Street North, east of Morgan Avenue. The path length was approximately 4.4 miles across Washington County, with a maximum width of 440 yards. The worst damage occurred on Bone Lake where numerous large trees were uprooted or blown down. Some roof damage was noted, but most of the trees fell away from homes. Other damage along the path was associated with flattened corn, tree damage, a storage shed that had its roof blown off, and damage to a solar panel farm.

The wider storm

Several severe storms developed in a highly sheared environment. Instability was adequate enough to cause a few of the storms to become tornadic near Silver Lake, and around Forest Lake, and Scandia during the afternoon of Sunday, July 28th.

A storm survey found a total of six tornadoes. These surveys indicated an EF1 tornado formed near Silver Lake, and another between Forest Lake, north of Scandia, and into southern Chicago County.

The worst damage occurred along Bone Lake near Scandia, where very large trees were uprooted or blown down. Some of the trees caused significant damage to lake homes on Bone Lake.

Began near Scandia (45.2478, -92.9020).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 835225. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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