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F2 tornado in Swisher County, Texas

Tornado May 5, 2002 · Swisher County, Texas

Rating

10.0 mi

Whole path

300 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$4.0M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 300 yards (0.17 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F2 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F2 meant considerable damage: roofs torn off well-built houses, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted; the scale paired it with winds of 113–157 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 large tornado developed west of town. It moved eastward across open country and thus the storm survey team, made up of both NWS personnel and a Texas Tech University wind engineer, could only find damage to power poles and to fence posts. Based on storm chaser video, the large tornado weakened and finally dissipated just west of Happy.

Began near Happy (34.7333, -101.9333).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F1 Hall County F1 Hall County F1 Hall County F0 Castro County F0 Swisher County F0 Hall County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5296360. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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