F4 tornado in Sherman County, Texas

Tornado June 9, 1971 · Sherman County, Texas

Rating

5.9 mi

Path length

1,320 yd

Path width

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,320 yards (0.75 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F4 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F4 meant devastating damage: well-built houses levelled; the scale paired it with winds of 207–260 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. Written accounts from this era do exist in NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications (scanned, back to 1959).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10132628. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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