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F3 tornado in Lowndes County, Mississippi

Tornado November 10, 2002 · Lowndes County, Mississippi

Rating

29.2 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

Injuries

$60.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Lowndes County → Lamar County, Alabama; 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

A tornado formed in Lowndes County, about 3 miles southeast of Artesia. It moved 22 miles across the county, resulting in numerous injuries. Most of the damage and injuries was seen in Columbus around 7:20 PM. Here, extensive damage was received by several buildings on the campuses of the Mississippi University for Women and the Mississippi School for Math and Science. Major damage was received by approximately 60 homes in the southern part of Columbus as the tornado moved through. The tornado then moved into Lamar County, Alabama 2.5 miles southeast of Steens, Mississippi.

Began near Artesia (33.3833, -88.6167).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F2 Attala County F1 Lowndes County 1 dead F1 Winston County F1 Lowndes County F1 Winston County F1 Madison County F1 Marion County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5322861. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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