Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1998

F0 tornado, Monroe, Arkansas, November 10, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 4.6 miles across Monroe County on November 10, 1998, touching down at 5:30 AM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody.

The rating scale

Tracks are drawn in the color of the rating. The Fujita scale rates the damage rather than measuring the wind: the speeds are what that damage is taken to imply.

  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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
November 10, 1998
Touchdown
5:30 AM CST (11:30 UTC)
Path length
4.6 miles (7.4 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Monroe County
Touchdown point
34.700, -91.180
Lift-off point
34.730, -91.120
Record number
456

What the Weather Service recorded

A weak tornado was spawned southwest of Monroe. The tornado moved quickly northeast and destroyed two mobile homes and two sheds. Five homes and two barns were also damaged. Several power poles and trees were downed. The tornado dissipated just northwest of Monroe.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
10:49 UTC11:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLZK

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:26 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 air that afternoon

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.

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z

11.5 hours before the tornado, 110 km from the path. November 10, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1998-11-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 357 joules per kilogram, CIN -72, lifted condensation level 693 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 00:00Z on 1998-11-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 360 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 54 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
357 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-72 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
693 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
54 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
35 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
360 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
457 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
2.4
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z

0.5 hours after it, 110 km from the path. November 10, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1998-11-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -6227, lifted condensation level 1639 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Little Rock, AR at 12:00Z on 1998-11-10The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -271 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-6227 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1639 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
43 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-271 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 102 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:28 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.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of November 10, 1998

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
November 1012:35 AM CSTF1Sebastian, OK to AR5.0200$760,000
November 101:10 AM CSTF0Franklin, AR0.550$30,000
November 101:58 AM CSTF3Boone, MO2.07016$6.0 million
November 102:05 AM CSTF0Newton, AR0.5100
November 102:20 AM CSTF0Boone, AR0.5100
November 107:55 AM CSTF1Fayette, TN5.51,000$250,000
November 108:05 AM CSTF0Gallatin, IL0.230$20,000
November 109:45 AM CSTF0Acadia Parish, LA0.230$50,000
November 1011:15 AM CSTF0Iberia Parish, LA1.030$20,000
November 1011:45 AM CSTF1Tangipahoa Parish, LA0.5501$50,000
November 101:52 PM ESTF0Muskegon, MI2.5700

What this means

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.

Sources

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