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F3 tornado in Fillmore County, Nebraska

Tornado May 9, 1953 · Fillmore County, Nebraska

Rating

46.9 mi

Whole path

880 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$7.5M

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F3 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F3 meant severe damage: whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned; the scale paired it with winds of 158–206 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. (NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications, which carry written accounts, begin in 1959.)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10073812. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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