Tornadoes · United States · Florida · 1998

F0 tornado, Miami Shrs, Florida, September 5, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Florida on September 5, 1998, touching down at 12:40 PM CDT and reaching 30 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
September 5, 1998
Touchdown
12:40 PM CDT (17:40 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Not recorded
Touchdown point
25.870, -80.200
Lift-off point
25.870, -80.200
Record number
680

What the Weather Service recorded

F0 tornado had brief touchdown at NE 94th St. and N Miami Ave. Power lines and some trees were downed.

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

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
17:47 UTC18:30 UTCTornado WarningMFL

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:55 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.

Miami, FL (KMFL), 12:00Z

5.7 hours before the tornado, 11 km from the path. September 5, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-09-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1447 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 944 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, Miami, FL at 12:00Z on 1998-09-05The 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 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.1939Sfc1 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
1447 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-57 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3041 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
944 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
117 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Miami, FL (KMFL), 00:00Z

6.3 hours after it, 11 km from the path. September 6, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-09-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2156 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 772 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, Miami, FL at 00:00Z on 1998-09-06The 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 82 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 10 knots.1939Sfc1 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
2156 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2636 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
772 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
10 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
82 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Miami/Opa Locka (OPF), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:53 UTC8382350° 9 kt1016.6TSRA
16:02 UTC82.480.6360° 11 kt1016.9
16:15 UTC80.680.6 1016.9
16:26 UTC80.680.6300° 7 kt1016.9
16:41 UTC80.678.8300° 10 kt1016.9
16:43 UTC78.878.8290° 12 kt1016.9
16:53 UTC7979330° 12 kt1016.9TSRA BR
17:06 UTC78.878.8330° 14 kt1016.9
17:14 UTC7777310° 8 kt1016.9
17:29 UTC7777240° 18 kt231017.9
17:33 UTC75.275.2280° 16 kt231017.9
17:41 UTC75.273.4260° 16 kt221017.9
17:53 UTC7474300° 11 kt1017.3TSRA FG
17:56 UTC75.275.2310° 10 kt1017.3
18:04 UTC75.275.2340° 6 kt1016.9
18:13 UTC73.473.410° 8 kt1017.3
18:20 UTC73.473.4360° 5 kt1016.9
18:53 UTC747480° 4 kt1015.9TSRA BR
19:09 UTC75.275.290° 4 kt1015.2

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

The radar

The Miami radar (KAMX), 36 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:37 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 September 5, 1998

1 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
September 53:49 PM PDTF0Lincoln, NV0.130

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.