F2 tornado, Lake Wales, Florida, March 9, 1998

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 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

   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

F2

Date

March 9, 1998

Touchdown

1:28 AM EST (06:28 UTC)

Path length

10.4 miles (16.7 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$2.0 million

County

Polk County

Touchdown point

27.830, -81.500

Lift-off point

27.900, -81.320

Record number

345

A tornado (F0) touched down in rural semi-wooded swampland, seven miles southeast of Lake Wales in Southwest Polk County. Ground survey indicated that the tornado moved northeast across Lake-In-The-Water Road and caused sporadic minor damage to the roofs of a few homes and downed trees and branches in the Oakwood Drive subdivision. The tornado continued northeast, widened to 250 yards and intensified to F2 strength where it destroyed or severely damaged several structures along Doherty Drive.Two mobile homes that took a direct hit from the F2 tornado along Doherty Drive were completely disintegrated with only frame rails and tie downs intact. Meanwhile, in close proximity to the crushed mobile homes, a well-built home, with rebar-poured concrete, reinforced cinder block walls and a hip roof, suffered minor structural and roofing tile damage after taking a direct hit by the F2 tornado on Doherty Drive. A pick-up truck parked adjacent to the well-built home was pushed 30 feet from its original resting place by the tornadic wind.Residents along Doherty Drive reported the sound of the tornado resembled that of a large freight train. One severely injured resident on Doherty Drive was tossed over 50 feet into the street from his mobile home that was destroyed by the tornado.A storage facility with unsupported cinder block walls and a high unsupported roof span was demolished by the tornadic wind. Tornado ground survey indicated that a large ten foot plus wide wood door entrance failed and allowed the tornadic wind to enter the commercial structure and exert extreme pressure on the outer load bearing walls which collapsed outward.Aerial survey indicated that the tornado weakened to F1 strength and continued northeast across rural pasture and semi-wooded swampland where it caused severe damage to a few mobile homes, barns, fences and sheds before it crossed State Road 60, one quarter mile west of Tiger Lake Road, or 11.5 miles east of Lake Wales.The tornado downed large power lines along State Road 60 and continued northeast where it snapped tree tops and branches before it lifted and dissipated along the southwest shore of Lake Kissimmee.The tornado in all destroyed or severely damaged twelve homes, caused moderate to slight damage to an additional fourteen homes, severely damaged four commercial buildings and damaged two recreational vehicles. The tornado also snapped several large power poles, downed numerous power lines and uprooted or snapped several large trees. Tornado damage to structures was estimated at one million dollars while damage to the electrical infrastructure was estimated at one million dollars.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

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 FloridaEvery tornado in Florida since 1950Warnings in force in Florida nowThe forecast where you are

9 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.