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F3 tornado in Pope County, Illinois

Tornado April 28, 2002 · Pope County, Illinois

Rating

22.0 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Injury

$440K

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Pope County → Livingston County, Kentucky; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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

The tornado touched down near Dixon Springs and tracked east, parallel and very close to Illinois Route 146. The path was through rural farm country and the Shawnee National Forest. A couple of farm buildings were damaged near the beginning of the track. Where the tornado crossed Route 146, a mobile home was destroyed, injuring one person. On the north side of Golconda, one brick home was destroyed and a couple of nearby homes were damaged. The tornado then crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky.

Began near Dixon Spgs (37.3500, -88.7167).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5289044. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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