Tornadoes · United States · Illinois · 1998

F0 tornado, Tunnel Hill, Illinois, June 14, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Johnson County on June 14, 1998, touching down at 5:35 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
June 14, 1998
Touchdown
5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Johnson County
Touchdown point
37.520, -88.800
Lift-off point
37.520, -88.780
Record number
510

What the Weather Service recorded

The brief touchdown occurred just east of Tunnel Hill. Numerous trees were down, and a garage was damaged.

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
22:26 UTC23:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningPAH
22:38 UTC23:10 UTCTornado WarningPAH

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 10:53 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

10.6 hours before the tornado, 249 km from the path. June 14, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1998-06-14Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 6 joules per kilogram, CIN -256, lifted condensation level 813 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1998-06-14The 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 254 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
6 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-256 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
813 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
254 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
350 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

1.4 hours after it, 249 km from the path. June 15, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1998-06-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 3344 joules per kilogram, CIN -3, lifted condensation level 936 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1998-06-15The 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 451 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 71 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
3344 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-3 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2143 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
936 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
71 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
451 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
509 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
11.0
Supercell composite
67.6
0-3 km lapse rate
6.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Marion Regional (MWA), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC78.8140° 10 kt996.3
21:33 UTC78.8150° 13 kt995.3
21:53 UTC78.8160° 14 kt995.3
22:40 UTC73.4310° 8 kt995.3
23:07 UTC66.260° 7 kt996.6
23:22 UTC68130° 6 kt996.3
23:54 UTC68140° 8 kt995.6
00:00 UTC73.4240° 15 kt35998.6

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 14, 1998

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 141:30 PM CDTF1Macon, MO0.330$10,000
June 141:40 PM CDTF0Adair, MO5.030
June 141:55 PM CDTF0Audrain, MO4.050
June 143:00 PM CDTF0Pike, MO0.250
June 143:20 PM CDTF0Scotland, MO0.230
June 143:30 PM CDTF0Clark, MO0.230
June 143:35 PM CDTF1Lewis, MO9.580
June 143:40 PM CDTF0Clark, MO0.230
June 143:50 PM CDTF0Clark, MO1.050
June 144:00 PM CDTF0Clark, MO1.050
June 144:00 PM CDTF1Adams, IL3.0801
June 144:20 PM CDTF1Calhoun, IL1.280
June 145:23 PM CDTF0Schuyler, IL0.130
June 145:56 PM CDTF0Schuyler, IL0.130
June 146:08 PM CDTF0Codington, SD0.530
June 146:10 PM CDTF0Madison, IL1.0100
June 146:15 PM CDTF1Bond, IL5.51504
June 146:45 PM CDTF0Fulton, IL0.130
June 147:52 PM CDTF0Christian, IL0.130
June 148:31 PM CDTF0Clay, IL0.130
June 148:53 PM CDTF1Benton, TN1.0100$10,000

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.