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F3 tornado in Putnam County, Ohio

Tornado October 24, 2001 · Putnam County, Ohio

Rating

32.0 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

$1.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Van Wert County → Putnam County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 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

Tornado touched down in extreme southeast Van Wert county northwest of Delphos as an F0 and movednortheast into Putnam county southwest of Fort Jennings. F3 damage occurred 2 miles southwest of Ottawa in Putnam county with significant damage to well built homes and structures. The tornado was skipping across northeast Putnam county with F1-F2 damage before lifting just south of the Henry county line east of Belmore.

Began near Ft Jennings (40.8833, -84.3167).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5270652. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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