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F3 tornado in Howard County, Indiana

Tornado June 11, 1998 · Howard County, Indiana

F3
Rating
12.5 mi
Path length
800 yd
Path width
8
Injuries
$5.0M
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

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.

The wider storm

This strong tornado originated from a supercell which initially produced several funnel clouds beginning northeast of Crawfordsville, passing over Frankfort to Kokomo's south side. This supercell finally produced its tornado just south of Kokomo near Oakford and Center. The tornado damaged a school near Center and caused its most extensive damage in Greentown where over two dozen buildings were destroyed and nearly 200 buildings were damaged. The tornado continued tracking ENE along the N & W train tracks and into WC Grant County west of Swayzee.

Began near Greentown (40.4000, -86.0700).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5655575. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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