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F4 tornado in Brown County, Minnesota

Tornado March 29, 1998 · Brown County, Minnesota

F4
Rating
73.0 mi
Whole path
2,200 yd
Path width
1
Death
19
Injuries
$75.0M
Damage as recorded

NOAA records this tornado county by county. Its path ran through Murray County → Cottonwood County → Brown County → Blue Earth County → Nicollet County; the totals above are for the whole tornado.

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 2,200 yards (1.25 mi) — zoom in and the swath grows to true scale. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F4 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F4 meant devastating damage: well-built houses levelled; the scale paired it with winds of 207–260 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

Tornado began 7 miles east of Avoca in Murray county, continued through Cottonwood, Brown, extreme Northwest Watonwan, Northwest Blue Earth, and finally lifted off 4 miles east of Courtland in Nicollet county. Total storm track was 67 miles. The tornado ripped through the village of Comfrey destroying a grain elevator and damaging 75% of the town. Much of downtown Comfrey destroyed including the town hall. School heavily damaged. 100 people made homeless. 50 homes destroyed. 130 farmsteads damaged or destroyed in Brown county. 500 dairy cows killed. One man critically injured in collapse of farmstead northwest of the town of Hanska. He died the next day. 35 buildings destroyed or damaged in far Northwest Blue Earth county. Damage estimate estimated. Property damage to extreme northwest Blue Earth county across Cambria township estimated at 2 million. Property damage to extreme northwest Watonwan county estimated at 245 thousand.

Began near Comfrey (44.1200, -94.9000).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F4 Watonwan CountyF3 Nicollet County 1 deadF2 Le Sueur CountyF2 Rice CountyF1 Rice CountyF0 Dakota County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5638760. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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