F0 tornado, Ozark, Arkansas, November 10, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

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

2. F173 to 112 mph

   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

F0

Date

November 10, 1998

Touchdown

1:10 AM CST (07:10 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Franklin County

Touchdown point

35.470, -93.930

Lift-off point

35.470, -93.930

Record number

450

Summary of events for November 9-10 1998:A solid line of severe thunderstorms raced across northwest and west central Arkansas on the evening and early morning of Nov 9-10. This line of storms was in association with the cold front trailing from a powerful "Colorado low" moving across the central and northern plains. This line of storms produced strong to severe wind gusts along its entire length. However, an isolated supercell thunderstorm developed within the line of storms southwest of Fort Smith and produced an F1 tornado as it travelled across the southern part of Fort Smith. The same storm produced an F0 tornado further east in Franklin County. Fortunately, no deaths or injuries were associated with the severe weather.

A brief F0 tornado touched down just north of the Arkansas River. Two houses received minor damage, and numerous trees and power lines were blown down.

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

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.

Fort Smith Municipal (FSM), 42 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 44 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 07:11 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

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

11 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.