F1 tornado, Jasper to Arkadelphia, Alabama, April 16, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. F3158 to 206 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. F5261 to 318 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

F1

Date

April 16, 1998

Touchdown

8:46 PM CDT (01:46 UTC)

Path length

5.5 miles (8.8 km)

Path width

110 yards (101 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

Counties

Walker and Cullman counties

Touchdown point

33.880, -87.170

Lift-off point

33.900, -87.070

Record number

837

In the Piney Woods area there was significant damage. Three mobile homes were completely destroyed and at least four had damage. One house sustained major damage and several had minor damage. Numerous trees and power lines were down along the entire path. The tornado crossed the Walker-Cullman line south of the Smith Lake dam uprooting and downing trees.

Several trees were snapped off and uprooted; a few mobile homes were damaged. Power lines were down across the area.

A small tornado touched down in extreme southwestern Cullman County. A few structures were damaged along with numerous trees downed or uprooted.

A tornado touched down just north of Arkadelphia and SR 91 and traveled northeastward moving across the northern side of The Colony community. It crossed Interstate 65 at the 294-mile marker before ending. The tornado damaged a number of houses and outbuildings and downed numerous trees.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

43 minutes of warning. NWS BMX issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:03 UTC, 43 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:50 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:06 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in AlabamaEvery tornado in Alabama since 1950Warnings in force in Alabama nowThe forecast where you are

41 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.