Tornado which ripped through South Moravia rated F3 on Fujita scale

The tornado which ripped through seven villages in southern Moravia on Thursday night was moving at a speed of 219 km per hour, meteorologist Dagmar Honsová told the website Novinky.cz. She said that in some instances the force of the wind was even stronger.

Honsová said the tornado formed as a result of a collision of a hot and cold front, which has now moved east, out of Czech territory,

According to meteorologists, the damage caused corresponds to a tornado of F3 intensity on the five-point Fujita scale.

The last time a tornado hit the Czech Republic was three years ago, but it was only a mild tornado, rated number one on the Fujita scale. A stronger tornado hit Litovel in 2004, but it caused far less damage than the most recent one.