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F3 tornado in Wayne County, Illinois

Tornado April 19, 1996 · Wayne County, Illinois

Rating

17.0 mi

Whole path

400 yd

Path width

$3.2M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Jefferson County → Hamilton County → Wayne County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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.

The wider storm

Total damage was estimated around 3 million dollars. The tornado destroyed 3 homes and caused moderate to severe damage to 50 others. About 45 barns and outbuildings were damaged or destroyed, along with 60 to 70 grain bins. The small community of Piopolis was nearly devastated. The intensity of the tornado was just weak (F0 or F1) during most of its life, but it briefly reached F3 intensity.

Began near Barnhill (38.2500, -88.4200).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5543602. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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