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F3 tornado in Montgomery County, Tennessee

Tornado May 4, 2003 – May 5, 2003 · Montgomery County, Tennessee

F3
Rating
11.5 mi
Path length
1,000 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$750K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 1,000 yards (0.57 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 affected the southeast part of Montgomery County and did damage from Roberts Road, to Fredonia and to Albright Road. 108 homes were damaged. Estimated loss is about 3/4 of a million dollars. The tornado destroyed 2 brick homes on state Highway 12 near Fredonia and a mobile home on Albright Rd. One woman was injured in the mobile home. The Frazier family in the brick home took their 3 children to the basement. Their brick home was ripped to pieces and blown into the nearby woods. A man on Roberts Road said 3 large oak trees were ripped out of the ground and thrown on top of his house. A neighbor's garage from about a 1/4 of a mile away landed on the back of his house. Montgomery County EMA reported 108 homes were damaged by the tornado.

Began near Clarksville (36.4167, -87.3500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5358410. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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