Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1998

F1 tornado, Lakeport, Florida, February 2, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 0.2 miles across Glades County on February 2, 1998, touching down at 9:50 PM EST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
February 2, 1998
Touchdown
9:50 PM EST (02:50 UTC)
Path length
0.2 miles (0.3 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Glades County
Touchdown point
26.970, -81.130
Lift-off point
26.970, -81.130
Record number
47

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touched down in Buckhead Ridge. Two homes had their roofs torn off. Ten homes had roof damage. Numerous trees and powerlines down.

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.

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 Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:58 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), 00:00Z

2.8 hours before the tornado, 150 km from the path. February 3, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-02-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 62 joules per kilogram, CIN -22, lifted condensation level 537 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 1998-02-03The 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 228 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 66 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
62 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-22 J/kg
Surface CAPE
53 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
537 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
66 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
228 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
592 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

9.2 hours after it, 150 km from the path. February 3, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Tampa Bay, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-02-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 519 joules per kilogram, CIN -16, lifted condensation level 576 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 1998-02-03The 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 148 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 knots.1939587897117136156Sfc1 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
519 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-16 J/kg
Surface CAPE
237 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
576 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
148 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
79 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.4
Supercell composite
2.3
0-3 km lapse rate
5.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Melbourne radar (KMLB), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:51 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 FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of February 2, 1998

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 26:47 PM ESTF1Monroe, FL1.050$20 million
February 27:10 PM ESTF0Monroe, FL0.530
February 27:45 PM ESTF0Pasco, FL0.130$10,000
February 27:22 PM CSTF2Broward, FL21.0200$205 million
February 211:30 PM ESTF0Saint Lucie, FL0.450$30,000

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.