F3 tornado in Monroe and McMinn County, Tennessee

Tornado February 21, 1993 · Monroe and McMinn County, Tennessee

Rating

15.0 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

Injuries

$5.0M

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

The tornado that was in McMinn County continued into Monroe County and produced considerable damage to the town of Tellico Plains. Over 100 houses were either damaged or destroyed. A high school had its gymnasium roof damaged. Numerous trees and power lines were knocked down. The tornado continued into part of the Cherokee National Forest and damaged numerous trees and closed a campground for the season.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 10349655. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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