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F4 tornado in Guthrie, Greene and Carroll County, Iowa

Tornado May 27, 1995 · Guthrie, Greene and Carroll County, Iowa

Rating

30.0 mi

Path length

250 yd

Path width

Injury

$2.0M

Damage as recorded

$22K

Crop damage

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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).

Began near Bayard (41.7800, -94.6500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10321739. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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