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F3 tornado in Seminole County, Florida

Tornado February 23, 1998 · Seminole County, Florida

Rating

16.0 mi

Whole path

200 yd

Path width

Deaths

Injuries

$31.0M

Damage as recorded

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

EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

The path drawn at its surveyed width of 200 yards (0.11 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 Seminole County category F3 tornado was produced by the same supercell that produced the Winter Garden tornado. It initially set down near Longwood and moved northeast at 45 mph. The tornado passed through several neighborhhoods in the southeast portion of Sanford killing 12 people in mobile homes and injuring 70. It continued northeast and crossed into Volusia County 5 miles east of Sanford. The near 200 mph winds of the tornado damaged or destroy 625 structures.

Began near Longwood (28.7000, -81.3500).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

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

F3 Kissimmee Tornado (1998) 25 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 5643842. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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