Aumsville Tornado killed 6 people

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The Aumsville, Ore., tornado that was assumed to be the strongest twister to hit the region on Tuesday noon was actually not. However, it is the strongest one to hit the I-5 corridor in the Northwest in more than a decade.

Based on the extensive damage to the Willamette Valley town, National Weather Service meteorologists investigating the scene say it appears this storm is what is called an EF2.

The Enhanced Fujita scale is named for Japanese-American meteorologist Ted Fujita, who had the idea that the wind speeds of a tornado could be determined by the extent of the damage the storm causes.

The scale goes from zero to five, with five being the strongest. Most of the twisters in Oregon are usually a zero or a one.

A tornado that is an EF2 has winds estimated to be between 110-135 miles an hour. The strongest winds ever recorded in a tornado happened in 1999 outside of Oklahoma City, Okla., with winds clocked around 301 miles an hour.

The last time Oregon saw a strong tornado was in 1993, when a tornado struck a rural area near Newberg. No people were hurt, but some cows were killed.

Other notable tornadoes that hit the region was an EF0 that hit Lincoln City in 2009. That late evening twister pulled roofs off several homes in the Lands End neighborhood on the north part of town.

On Jan. 10 of 2008 a twister hit Vancouver, Wash.–that EF1 tornado destroyed a boathouse along the shore of Vancouver Lake.

The strongest and deadliest West Coast tornado happened right here in the Portland metro area almost 40 years ago. In April of 1972 a twister that formed on the Oregon side of the Columbia, went across to Vancouver and destroyed many homes and an elementary school.

More than 300 people were injured in that twister and six people were killed.

We’ll keep you updated. So stay tuned.