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F3 tornado in Grayson County, Kentucky

Tornado May 23, 2000 · Grayson County, Kentucky

F3
Rating
6.0 mi
Path length
100 yd
Path width
16
Injuries
$50.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 100 yards (0.06 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.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A storm survey was done by NWS personnel on Wednesday May 24. The survey found severe damage to residential and industrial structures. Three vortices combined into a single tornado north of Leitchfield, then moved east to southeast at 40 to 45 mph. The path moved through the northeast and east sections of Leitchfield and beyond. (Path length and width are estimated). The structural damaged evidenced the presence of an F3 tornado, with maximum winds around 175 mph. Houses that were virtually destroyed, but still had parts of their structure remaining above the main floor, were the basis of the F3 evaluation. Severe damage to nearby factories also supported the F3 evaluation.

Began near Leitchfield (37.5333, -86.3000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

2 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

F0 Hart CountyF0 Taylor County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5151471. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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