F0 tornado, Homeland, California, May 13, 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

May 13, 1998

Touchdown

3:45 PM PDT (22:45 UTC)

Path length

0.2 miles (0.3 km)

Path width

40 yards (37 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Riverside County

Touchdown point

33.730, -117.120

Lift-off point

33.730, -117.120

Record number

170

An unusually cold, late season storm system pushed a cold front through southern California, resulting in unseasonably cold conditions, and heavy snow in the mountains. The snow began falling around noon on the twelfth and continued off and on through the thirteenth. Thunder and lightning accompanied some of the heavier ice-pellet and snow showers, and the weight of the snow snapped tree branches, resulting in isolated power outages. Snow was reported as low as 4000 feet, with heavy accumulations above 6000 feet. Reported amounts ranged from around six inches at 5800 feet, to two feet above 8000 feet. The heavy snow prompted the reopening of some ski resorts. For one resort, it was the first time in it's 74 year history that it had been open so late in the season. The cold weather made it particularly difficult for undocumented immigrants travelling through the Laguna Mountains where wind-swept rain and snow fell. One 29 year-old man died of hypothermia on Mount Laguna. Convection in the cold air produced thunderstorms with locally heavy downpours of rain and gusty winds over the Inland Empire. Reports of funnel clouds were received from pilots and observers near March Air Force Base, and Homeland. One of the funnel clouds apparently touched down as a weak tornado in the Highland Palms mobile home park in Homeland ripping awnings from several trailers. Also of note, the persistent evening rain on the twelfth caused the first rain-out of a San Diego Padres game at the stadium in Mission Valley in over 15 years.

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

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

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 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 CaliforniaEvery tornado in California since 1950Warnings in force in California nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.