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F3 tornado in Palm Beach County, Florida

Tornado October 19, 1958 · Palm Beach County, Florida

Rating

20.2 mi

Whole path

440 yd

Path width

Death

Injuries

$500K

Damage as recorded

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

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The path drawn at its surveyed width of 440 yards (0.25 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.

NOAA’s online database has no written narrative for tornadoes before 1996 — just the numbers above, transcribed from the original storm logs. (NOAA’s monthly Storm Data publications, which carry written accounts, begin in 1959.)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 9984944. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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