The tornado that brought destruction to Kushva and destroyed more than 710 hectares of forest was a tornado.

      A destructive tornado that struck Kushva on the evening of June 22 turned out not to be the only one. That same evening, another tornado was active in the area, as shown by satellite image analysis. The overall scale of the disaster was record-breaking for the Sverdlovsk region since the beginning of the century, reports v-tagile.ru.

      This conclusion was reached by the authors of the Telegram channel "Dangerous Natural Phenomena of the Perm Region," according to v-tagile.ru. According to images from space, on June 22, tornadoes destroyed more than 710 hectares of forest. An additional 15% may be in a "blind zone" under the clouds.

      The first vortex originated near the village of Laya in the suburbs of Nizhny Tagil and traveled along the Serovsky tract, where it was captured on video by numerous eyewitnesses. Its path length was about 16.5 kilometers, and the area of destroyed forest plantations exceeded 200 hectares.

      As it approached the Volkovsky GOK quarries, the width of the fallen forest strip reached 570 meters; however, the city of Kushva itself was not affected by this tornado.

      The cause of the destruction directly in Kushva was a second, more powerful tornado. It formed over the local pond and, upon reaching land, rapidly gained strength over the private sector.

      Subsequently, the funnel continued to widen, reaching widths of about 700 meters in certain areas. The total path of this vortex was estimated at 29 kilometers, and the area affected was 510 hectares.

      Experts emphasize the uniqueness of this natural phenomenon for the Urals. "Nevertheless, such tornadoes occur once every few years in the Sverdlovsk region and neighboring areas. The uniqueness of the current case lies rather in the fact that it passed through the city, caused significant damage, and was recorded by a large number of eyewitnesses," note the authors of the Telegram channel.

      They write that on the Fujita Scale (which measures tornado intensity), it was classified as a "strong tornado."

      The most powerful tornado in Russia in the current century is considered to be the one that occurred in the Kurgan region in 2017, claims the Telegram channel.