Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1998

F1 tornado, Poneto, Indiana, June 11, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Wells County on June 11, 1998, touching down at 9:34 PM EST and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $150,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 11, 1998
Touchdown
9:34 PM EST (02:34 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$150,000
County
Wells County
Touchdown point
40.630, -85.230
Lift-off point
40.650, -85.220
Record number
997

What the Weather Service recorded

Synoptic and mesoscale conditions for June 11, 1998...Morning sfc and upper air analysis revealed a potent upper short wave trough across North Dakota with an intensifying area of sfc low pressure across southwest Kansas. An unseasonably strong 140 knot jet streak was ejecting out of this trough across Kansas with the left front exit region progged into central Indiana after 18Z. Increasing moisture convergence and theta-e advection along the northward lifting warmfront was seen as 850 mb winds were forecast to increase to 55 knots. By 21Z, the sfc low had moved into eastern Iowa and deepened to 994 mb. The prestorm enviornment was characterized by moderate to extreme instability (LI values -7 to -9 and CAPE values in excess of 2000 J/kg) with temperatures in the lower 80s and dewpoints in the low/mid 70s. This combined with a dry punch at 700mb and deep layer shear along the warm front, where storm relative helicity values increased to 400 M2/S2, lay the foundation for an outbreak of damaging tornadoes across Indiana.

THIS WAS ONE OF SEVERAL TORNADOES PRODUCED FROM THE SAME SUPERCELL THAT DEVELOPED ACROSS HOWARD COUNTY. THIS BRIEF SPINUP CAUSED EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TO ALL OUTBUILDINGS ON ONE FARM, 2 FARM HOMES SUFFERED EXTENSIVE DAMAGE, 5 OTHER HOMES SUFFERED MINOR TO MODERATE STRUCTURAL DAMAGE.

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.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
02:33 UTC03:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningIWX

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 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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

2.6 hours before the tornado, 181 km from the path. June 12, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 1998-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 593 joules per kilogram, CIN -63, lifted condensation level 676 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 1998-06-12The 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 388 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
593 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-63 J/kg
Surface CAPE
387 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
676 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
388 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
431 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
11.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

9.4 hours after it, 181 km from the path. June 12, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 1998-06-12Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 685 joules per kilogram, CIN -14, lifted condensation level 667 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 1998-06-12The 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 159 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 45 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
685 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-14 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1257 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
667 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
45 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
159 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
4.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Fort Wayne (FWA), 37 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:54 UTC7169160° 14 kt1005.4-RA BR
01:05 UTC69.869.8190° 7 kt1005.1
01:42 UTC71.669.8170° 13 kt201005.8
01:54 UTC7170170° 15 kt211005.4-RA BR
02:01 UTC71.669.8170° 16 kt201005.4
02:09 UTC71.669.8180° 15 kt1005.1
02:54 UTC7170200° 14 kt1005.4-TSRA
03:07 UTC71.669.8210° 14 kt201005.1
03:54 UTC7269230° 15 kt1005.1

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

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 89 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:34 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.

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 11, 1998

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 111:11 AM CDTF0Cheyenne, KS0.130
June 1112:08 PM MDTF0Johnson, WY0.130
June 1112:20 PM MDTF0Weston, WY0.130
June 1112:00 PM PDTF0Lyon, NV0.130
June 1112:26 PM PDTF0Lyon, NV0.130
June 115:00 PM EDTF0Montgomery, VA0.130
June 114:30 PM CDTF0Swift, MN2.550
June 116:09 PM ESTF4Cumberland–Greenfield tornado, IN13.24004$1.5 million
June 116:28 PM ESTF2Pulaski, IN9.01001$1.0 million
June 116:45 PM ESTF2Hancock, IN16.0300$410,000
June 117:03 PM ESTF3Howard, IN18.58008$5.5 million
June 117:20 PM ESTF0Randolph, IN5.0150$10,000
June 117:22 PM ESTF1Henry, IN11.0200$810,000
June 117:33 PM ESTF1Kosciusko, IN2.01004$800,000
June 117:41 PM ESTF1Madison, IN17.0500$2.0 million
June 119:40 PM ESTF1Jay, IN2.050$300,000

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.