Tornado touches down in Oregon town of McMinnville
Jun 14, 2013, 8:03 AM | Updated: 11:56 am
The Midwest is not the only place to find a tornado.
That’s what folks in the Oregon town of McMinnville discovered Thursday when a EF-1 category tornado touched down damaging several buildings and at least one home.
Spencer Wrigglesworth, whose auto repair shop was damanged, tells KGW in Portland he’s from the Midwest and knew it was a tornado.
“The wind started and I put my force against that door to shut it, because I knew it was bad news.”
The storm hit around 4:30 p.m. McMinnville Fire Chief Rich Leipfert says three commercial buildings were damaged. He says a porch roof also sustained minor damage.
A two-person storm survey team from the National Weather Service sent to the scene confirmed the damage was indeed caused by a tornado.
Weather Service meteorologist Treena Hartley said that the tornado’s estimated top winds in the damaged area ranged from 86 to 90 miles per hour.
McMinnville is southwest of Portland.
The Weather Service also received reports of funnel clouds seen in or near Hillsboro, Albany and Harrisburg, Ore.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
