Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1998

F0 tornado, Lake Wales, Florida, February 16, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Polk County on February 16, 1998, touching down at 2:32 PM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $150,000 of property damage.

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
February 16, 1998
Touchdown
2:32 PM EST (19:32 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$150,000
County
Polk County
Touchdown point
27.850, -81.530
Lift-off point
27.850, -81.530
Record number
74

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down along U.S. Highway 27A and North Crooked Lake Drive and lifted near Gulf View Cutoff Road in Babson Park. Five homes in a Babson Park division incurred roof damage by the tornado while several trees and power lines were downed before the tornado lifted and dissipated.

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

The warnings

7 minutes of warning. NWS TBW issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:25 UTC, 7 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:25 UTC20:15 UTCTornado WarningTBW
19:38 UTC20:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW
20:11 UTC21:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningTBW

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 10:48 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.

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 12:00Z

7.5 hours before the tornado, 87 km from the path. February 16, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-02-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 368 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 517 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-02-16The 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 456 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
368 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
201 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
517 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
47 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
456 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
609 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
5.1
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Tampa Bay, FL (KTBW), 00:00Z

4.5 hours after it, 87 km from the path. February 17, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-02-17Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1385 joules per kilogram, CIN -11, lifted condensation level 680 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, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-02-17The 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 408 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
1385 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-11 J/kg
Surface CAPE
492 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
680 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
408 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
419 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
3.3
Supercell composite
13.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Bartow (BOW), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
17:50 UTC73.466.2140° 16 kt1010.2-RA
18:57 UTC73.466.2140° 16 kt251009.5-RA
19:51 UTC73.466.2140° 12 kt201008.5VCSH
20:55 UTC69.862.6310° 8 kt1009.1

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of February 16, 1998

10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 169:35 AM ESTF0Citrus, FL0.130$50,000
February 161:00 PM ESTF0Hernando, FL2.030$120,000
February 163:19 PM ESTF0Volusia, FL0.240$80,000
February 163:29 PM ESTF0Seminole, FL0.130$200,000
February 165:25 PM CSTF1Fort Bend, TX1.22004$3.7 million
February 166:03 PM CSTF0Brazoria, TX0.250$30,000
February 166:40 PM CSTF0Galveston, TX0.130
February 1610:45 PM ESTF0Hamilton, FL0.130$40,000
February 1612:26 AM ESTF0Camden, GA0.2301$40,000
February 1612:30 AM ESTF0Glynn, GA0.540$500,000

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.