Tornadoes · United States · Georgia · 1998

F0 tornado, Forsyth, Georgia, May 3, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Monroe County on May 3, 1998, touching down at 7:33 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $2,000 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
May 3, 1998
Touchdown
7:33 PM EDT (23:33 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$2,000
County
Monroe County
Touchdown point
33.180, -83.950
Lift-off point
33.180, -83.950
Record number
979

What the Weather Service recorded

Police also reported a brief tornado touchdown from another storm in northern Monroe county. Trees were damaged along highway 42 near Blount. No injuries or significant damage were reported. The path length and width were estimated.

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

The warnings

30 minutes of warning. NWS FFC issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:03 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:40 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:23 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFFC
23:03 UTC23:40 UTCTornado WarningFFC
23:47 UTC00:20 UTCTornado WarningFFC

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 11:00 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.

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 12:00Z

11.6 hours before the tornado, 55 km from the path. May 3, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 1998-05-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 239 joules per kilogram, CIN -118, lifted condensation level 1307 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, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 12:00Z on 1998-05-03The 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 100 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 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
239 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-118 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1307 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
17 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
100 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
174 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA (KFFC), 00:00Z

0.4 hours after it, 55 km from the path. May 4, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 1998-05-04Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 879 joules per kilogram, CIN -33, lifted condensation level 901 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, Peachtre/Fal Fld, GA at 00:00Z on 1998-05-04The 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 139 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 59 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
879 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-33 J/kg
Surface CAPE
63 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
901 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
59 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
27 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
139 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
172 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
4.6
0-3 km lapse rate
5.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Peachtree City (FFC), 61 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC7261210° 7 kt1006.4
22:31 UTC66.260.8 1006.8HZ
22:34 UTC66.260.8340° 26 kt311007.8HZ
22:43 UTC57.255.4 6 kt231007.1BR
22:53 UTC585760° 5 kt1006.8BR
23:37 UTC5957.20° 0 kt1007.1-RA BR
23:53 UTC595950° 4 kt1006.8-RA BR
00:19 UTC60.859150° 4 kt1006.4BR
00:53 UTC5959160° 3 kt1006.8BR

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of May 3, 1998

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 33:13 PM ESTF0Allen, IN0.130
May 33:21 PM ESTF0Allen, IN0.130
May 33:25 PM ESTF0Allen, IN0.130
May 34:06 PM CDTF0Wabash, IL0.240$20,000
May 34:36 PM ESTF0Huntington, IN0.130
May 36:15 PM EDTF0Van Wert, OH0.530$10,000
May 35:30 PM CDTF0Coffee, AL0.330$10,000
May 37:30 PM EDTF0Monroe, GA1.51002$100,000

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.