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F3 tornado in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota

Tornado September 18, 1997 · Mille Lacs County, Minnesota

Rating

17.0 mi

Whole path

800 yd

Path width

Death

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.

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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. Damage estimate included in entry for Morrison county. Total path length from 1 NE of Lastup to Onamia was 17 miles.

Began near Onamia (46.0800, -93.8300).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F2 Kanabec County F2 Morrison County F1 Morrison County F1 Mille Lacs County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5619487. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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