F2 tornado, Mattoon, Illinois, March 28, 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 28, 1998

Touchdown

5:25 AM CST (11:25 UTC)

Path length

1.5 miles (2.4 km)

Path width

220 yards (201 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

3

Property damage

$3.0 million

County

Coles County

Touchdown point

39.470, -88.380

Lift-off point

39.480, -88.350

Record number

58

A tornado touched down 1 mile southwest of Mattoon and travelled to the northeast. It damaged 4 homes in the initial touchdown area and then crossed a set of railroad tracks turning over 4 empty 30-ton coal cars. After crossing the railroad tracks, the tornado hit a self-storage facility, where six of the ten buildings in the complex were destroyed. The tin and steel girder buildings were not bolted down to the cement slabs, so they were lifted up, "wadded up" into a big pile, and deposited downstream about 200 yards. Further to the northeast, it damaged or destroyed numerous homes and businesses before lifting. It remained aloft for several blocks, then touched down again, tearing off treetops and damaging several roofs in the area. It lifted again and touched down a final time about a block away. Damage in this area was to tree tops and roofs. Overall, the tornado was on the ground for 1.5 miles and it either damaged or destroyed 120 homes and businesses. Damage is estimated between $2.5 and $3 million. Two people sustained minor injuries and one 9 year old child was seriously injured when a picture frame blew off the wall, hit her in the back, and cut her, causing her left lung to partially collapse.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:58 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 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 Lincoln radar (KILX), 112 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 11:27 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.

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

5 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.