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F3 tornado in Wichita County, Kansas

Tornado June 22, 1999 · Wichita County, Kansas

Rating

4.0 mi

Path length

880 yd

Path width

$250K

Damage as recorded

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 880 yards (0.50 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

A large tornado (F3) destroyed a farmstead. The house was nearly flattened by the tornado, and a tractor and grain combine/harvester were rolled several hundred feet. Tornado moved from East to West.

Began near Leoti (38.3700, -101.3500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5703186. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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