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F2 tornado in Rice County, Minnesota

Tornado March 29, 1998 · Rice County, Minnesota

Rating

8.0 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

$20.0M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 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.

What the National Weather Service wrote

Four homes and 6 businesses severely damaged. Street department building damaged. 20 farms damaged or destroyed.

Began near Lonsdale (44.4700, -93.4300).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F4 Brown County 1 dead F4 Watonwan County F3 Nicollet County 1 dead F2 Le Sueur County F1 Rice County F0 Dakota County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5638764. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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