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F3 tornado in Madison County, Tennessee

Tornado May 4, 2003 · Madison County, Tennessee

Rating

60.0 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$40.1M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Madison County → Madison County → Henderson County → Henderson 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

The tornado touched down south of where the tornado which struck the city of Jackson started. This tornado also moved east and eventually moved into Henderson county. Numerous homes were damaged or destroyed.

Began near Denmark (35.4833, -88.9333).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F2 Weakley County F2 Dyer County F2 Henry County F1 Weakley County F1 Carroll County F1 Dyer County F1 Dyer County F1 Henry County F1 Gibson County F1 Gibson County F0 Gibson County F0 Dyer County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5356967. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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