Tornadoes · United States · Idaho · 1998
F0 tornado, Bruneau, Idaho, April 23, 1998
This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Owyhee County on April 23, 1998, touching down at 5:10 PM MDT and reaching 50 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- April 23, 1998
- Touchdown
- 5:10 PM MDT (23:10 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 50 yards (46 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Owyhee County
- Touchdown point
- 42.920, -115.830
- Lift-off point
- 42.920, -115.830
- Record number
- 115
What the Weather Service recorded
A long lived severe thunderstorm crossed into Idaho from south east Oregon and cut a path of damage from Owyhee County, through the Boise metropolitan area and into the Boise Mountains. In Owyhee County the storm produced winds which knocked down power poles. As the storm crossed into Ada County numerous reports of large hail up to golf ball size were received along with damaging winds up to 59 mph. Many trees were blown down and a greenhouse sustained heavy damage from large hail. In Canyon County and Gem County golf ball hail was reported. As the storm moved into Boise County golf ball size hail was reported by spotters in Horseshoe Bend and winds damaged a mobile home. Wind blown debris smashed a car window. A wind gust of 74 mph was reported south of Idaho City. In Elmore County, outflow winds from the thunderstorm gusted to 74 mph at Mountain Home Air Force Base. The winds damaged roofs and irrigation equipment in and around Mountain Home. In Owyhee County the gust front spawned a short lived, weak tornado which did no damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Mountain Home Afb (MUO), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in IdahoEvery tornado in Idaho since 1950Warnings in force in Idaho nowThe forecast where you are
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.