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F2 tornado in De Kalb County, Tennessee

Tornado January 24, 1997 · De Kalb County, Tennessee

Rating

16.0 mi

Whole path

220 yd

Path width

Injuries

$1.0M

Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through De Kalb County → Smith County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 220 yards (0.12 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

One woman was injured by flying glass when the tornado turned her car around on US RT 70 at Alexandria and the windows popped out. Tornado path width and length are approximations.

Began near Alexandria (36.0800, -86.0300).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5589727. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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