F2 tornado — Lawrence County, Missouri

F2 tornado in Lawrence County, Missouri

Tornado December 17, 2002 · Lawrence County, Missouri

Rating

4.0 mi

Path length

100 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$500K

Damage as recorded

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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 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.

The wider storm

Tornado touched down two miles southwest of the Lucky Lady Trailer Park. The tornado then followed a trajectory through the trailer park and points north and east. 34 homes were either damaged or destroyed. Shortly after the initial touch down, a modular home was directly hit and destroyed. One fatality was observed at this location as a woman seeking shelter with her husband in the bedroom, was thrown approximately one quarter of a mile from the house location.As the tornado traversed through the Lucky Lady Trailer Park, many residents evacuated their mobile homes and took shelter in ditches and an open field. However, one fatality occurred at the trailer park when a woman was in the process of leaving her home to seek shelter in a field, was struck by a downed tree.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5326269. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

F2 tornado in Lawrence County, Missouri

The wider storm

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