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F3 tornado in Miami County, Indiana

Tornado May 30, 2004 · Miami County, Indiana

F3
Rating
4.5 mi
Path length
360 yd
Path width
1
Injury
$6.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 360 yards (0.20 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

NWS storm survey found a tornado with a path length near four and one half miles and just less than one quarter mile wide at its greatest width. The storm touched down three and one half miles west southwest of downtown Peru as an F0 and moved northeast at 35 MPH across the northwest corner of the city of Peru. The storm then caused F1 and F2 damage to trees, buildings, and a trailer park where two homes were destroyed and one woman was injured. The storm then intensified to F3 strength as it moved across an industrial park on the north side of Peru, tearing off a roof and knocking down a large communications tower. The storm then quickly began to dissipate as it appeared the rear flank downdraft quickly choked off the circulation in a field near the intersection of Highways U.S. 24 and SR19. Damage estimates were from 5 to 6 million dollars to private property and more than one half million in public property. Miami county was declared a presidential disaster area on June 3rd.

Began near Peru (40.7333, -86.1333).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5397902. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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