F1 tornado, Bristol to Dunlap, Indiana, August 25, 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F1

Date

August 25, 1998

Touchdown

1:35 AM EST (06:35 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$300,000

County

Elkhart County

Touchdown point

41.620, -85.900

Lift-off point

41.620, -85.900

Record number

1423

THIS WAS THE SAME TORNADO WHICH BEGAN IN NILES EARLIER. DAMAGE WAS EXTENSIVE TO TREES AND POWER LINES FROM THE ELKHART/CASS COUNTY LINE TO THE TOWN OF BRISTOL. SOME HOMES SUFFERED MAINLY MINOR DAMAGE TO SIDING...ROOFS AND GUTTERS. SOME OUTBUILDINGS HOWEVER WERE COMPLETELY DESTROYED.

THIS TORNADO LIKELY FORMED ALONG THE LEADING EDGE OF THE BOW ECHO WHICH PASSED THROUGH BERRIEN AND ST. JOSEPH COUNTIES EARLIER. IT TOUCHED DOWN ON TOP OF THE FORD DEALERSHIP ALONG HIGHWAY 33 TEARING OFF A LARGE PART OF THE ROOF AND ONE WALL. NEXT IT THREW A FORD AEROSTAR VAN INTO A POWER POLE AND PICKED UP AN RV TOSSING IT OVER 50 YARDS AWAY ACROSS THE HIGHWAY INTO A DITCH. NEXT IT CROSSED A STREET AND HIT A MANUFACTURED HOME DEALERSHIP SHIFTING SEVERAL HOMES OFF THEIR FOUNDATIONS, TEARING A LARGE PART OF THE OFFICE ROOF OFF AND FLIPPING A MOVING VAN OVER. IT THEN PROCEEDED DOWN ALONG HIGHWAY 33 FOR APPROXIMATELY ANOTHER 200 YARDS TEARING OFF PARTS OF ROOFS AND AIR CONDITIONING UNITS BEFORE LIFTING.

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

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.

Goshen (GSH), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 34 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:36 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 IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana 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.