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F3 tornado in Yazoo County, Mississippi

Tornado December 9, 1999 · Yazoo County, Mississippi

Rating

6.0 mi

Path length

400 yd

Path width

Injury

$200K

Damage as recorded

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 400 yards (0.23 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

This strong tornado blew down or uprooted thousands of trees and destroyed two mobile homes. One person was seriously injured. Several barns and out buildings were also destroyed and several farm implements were damaged. One of the out buildings had steel girders which were anchored into three foot square concrete pads and buried in the ground. Almost all of these girders were pulled out of the ground and thrown at least fifty yards.

Began near Bentonia (32.6300, -90.3500).

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5720567. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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