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Kissimmee Tornado (1998)

Tornado February 23, 1998 · Osceola County, Florida

Rating

38.0 mi

Whole path

250 yd

Path width

Deaths

150

Injuries

$55.0M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 250 yards (0.14 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

The deadliest tornado of the outbreak was a category F3 that touched down initially one mile south of Intercession City. The tornado moved northeast at 45 mph and ripped through the town of Kissimmee killing 25 people. The hardest hit areas were the Morningside Acres mobile home community and the Ponderosa Recreational Vehicle Park. In all eight people were killed in recreational vehicles, fifteen in mobile homes and one in an automobile. The tornado continued northeast and moved into Orange County six miles north of St. Cloud. One hundred and fifty people were injured and over 1000 structures were damaged or destroyed.

Began near Intercession City (28.2300, -81.4800).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F3 Seminole County 13 dead F3 Orange County 3 dead F2 Volusia County 1 dead F2 Volusia County F1 Brevard County F1 Brevard County

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5641811. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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