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F3 tornado in Bureau County, Illinois

Tornado May 9, 1995 · Bureau County, Illinois

F3
Rating
42.0 mi
Path length
300 yd
Path width
$3.0M
Damage as recorded
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.

What the National Weather Service wrote

This tornado was first reported near Neponset at 1730 CDT - near highway 92 by 1800 CDT and photographed just west of Walnut at 1815 CDT. Photographs taken by Kevin Hladik verified that at least two tornadoes were on the ground at the same time in the Walnut area. The tornadoes appeared to be several hundred yards apart. The Melvin "Red" Donovan farm had some of the most extensive damage including their two story farm house that was totally destroyed. Most of the house debris was little more than kindling wood. The basement was almost entirely filled with tornado debris so thankfully the Donovans were not home when the tornado struck. Damage was estimated at $300,000 to $500,000 in the Walnut area alone. Two sheriff squad cars were dented by golf ball-size hail as deputies were tracking the tornadoes. On one of the cars the windshield and one headlight were broken out.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10320571. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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