Evansville Tornado Was F3

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This probably comes as no surprise to anyone who has seen the damage photos, but the tornado that struck parts of Kentucky and Indiana Sunday near Evansville was a strong tornado, F3 on the Fujita scale with peak winds estimated at 200 mph. Worse, the damage path was more than a quarter of a mile wide for over 40 miles.

The government declared this yesterday in an official statement, the full text of which is here. They also issued this map (click to enlarge):

Evansville Tornado Track Map by NOAA

PHOTO BY NOAA

Comparison to history: According to the Tornado FAQ, the widest tornado was 2.5 miles in Nebraska in 2004.

The longest tornado path used to be 293 miles in 1917 but this has been refuted -- back then they didn't have modern tools such as radar or even flyovers to document these things.

The longest tornado on record is now the the Tri-State Tornado, a terrifying F-5 twister which cut a path 219 miles long through the Midwest, killing 695 people.

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