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F3 tornado in Morrison County, Minnesota

Tornado September 18, 1997 · Morrison County, Minnesota

F3
Rating
17.0 mi
Whole path
800 yd
Path width
1
Death
1
Injury
$1.7M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Morrison County → Mille Lacs County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 800 yards (0.45 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

Several buildings destroyed and numerous other buildings damaged. Hundreds of trees down. A number of cattle killed in barn collapse. One man injured when the tornado engulfed his car and threw it into a nearby woods. A second man critically injured when his garage collapsed. He died several weeks later.Total path length of tornado from 1 NE of Lastrup to Onamia was 17 miles.

Began near Lastrup (46.0700, -94.0500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F2 Kanabec CountyF2 Morrison CountyF1 Morrison CountyF1 Mille Lacs County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5619478. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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