Tornadoes · United States · Kansas · 1998

F0 tornado, St Benedict to Berwick, Kansas, June 13, 1998

From St Benedict to Berwick, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Nemaha County on June 13, 1998, touching down at 8:00 PM CDT and reaching 30 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.

  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 13, 1998
Touchdown
8:00 PM CDT (01:00 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Nemaha County
Touchdown point
39.980, -96.100
Lift-off point
39.980, -96.100
Record number
380

What the Weather Service recorded

A trained weather spotter reported that a tornado touched down briefly in open country.

A storm chaser reported that a tornado remained on the ground for 4 miles but remained in open country, causing no structural damage. Due to the lack of damage to structures or trees a confident estimate of the tornado's strength was difficult.

A storm chaser reported a brief tornado touch down in open country. The supercell thunderstorm that produced this tornado was the same one that spawned a 4 mile track tornado that ended 4 miles west of burn.

A storm chaser and reports from Law Enforcement indicated two small tornadoes touched down in the vicinity of Berwick but caused no damage. The tornado reported 4 miles northwest of Berwick was just a brief touch down but the tornado 3 miles northwest of Berwick touched down 4 times along and 2 mile path.

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
01:16 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningTOP
02:44 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningTOP

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 11:01 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.

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 00:00Z

1.0 hours before the tornado, 116 km from the path. June 14, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z 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 825 joules per kilogram, CIN -313, lifted condensation level 1627 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, Topeka, KS at 00:00Z 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 218 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 61 knots.1939587897117136Sfc1 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
825 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-313 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1240 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1627 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
61 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
218 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
443 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Topeka, KS (KTOP), 12:00Z

11.0 hours after it, 116 km from the path. June 14, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Topeka, KS 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 332 joules per kilogram, CIN -266, lifted condensation level 923 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, Topeka, KS 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 -105 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 63 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
332 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-266 J/kg
Surface CAPE
583 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
923 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
63 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
29 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-105 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
39 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.4
0-3 km lapse rate
4.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Falls City/Brenn (FNB), 45 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:50 UTC8062.24120° 10 kt1003.4

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 13, 1998

44 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 1311:40 AM MDTF0Converse, WY0.230
June 134:15 PM EDTF1Bladen, NC0.330
June 134:21 PM EDTF0Pender, NC0.130
June 134:25 PM EDTF1Bladen, NC2.030$30,000
June 132:47 PM MDTF0Cheyenne, NE0.130
June 132:57 PM MDTF0Goshen, WY4.030
June 135:02 PM EDTF0Brunswick, NC0.130
June 134:45 PM CDTF0Blaine, OK0.1301
June 135:00 PM CDTF0Smith, KS0.530$30,000
June 134:30 PM MDTF1Crook, WY1.530$20,000
June 135:35 PM CDTF0Sumner, KS0.560$50,000
June 135:40 PM CDTF1Gosper, NE7.0804$500,000
June 135:45 PM CDTF1Lincoln, NE4.080$250,000
June 135:50 PM CDTF0Chase, KS0.560
June 135:56 PM CDTF0Lincoln, NE0.130
June 136:02 PM CDTF0Lincoln, NE0.130
June 136:08 PM CDTF0Nuckolls, NE0.530
June 136:25 PM CDTF0Buffalo, NE1.030
June 136:29 PM CDTF0Cowley, KS1.0110$500,000
June 136:38 PM CDTF0Republic, KS0.2200
June 136:43 PM CDTF1Logan, OK2.050
June 136:45 PM CDTF0Thayer, NE1.030$150,000
June 136:50 PM CDTF0Custer, NE0.130
June 137:15 PM CDTF0Canadian, OK0.230
June 137:17 PM CDTF0Canadian, OK0.230
June 137:45 PM CDTF0Canadian, OK0.130
June 137:48 PM CDTF0Marion, AR0.150
June 138:02 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK0.850$300,000
June 138:07 PM CDTF1Oklahoma, OK0.850$200,000
June 138:08 PM CDTF2Oklahoma, OK1.5804$150,000
June 138:12 PM CDTF2Oklahoma, OK5.520017$1.0 million
June 138:19 PM CDTF1Nemaha, KS4.0450
June 138:30 PM CDTF0Nemaha, KS0.130
June 138:35 PM CDTF0Nemaha, KS1.550
June 138:40 PM CDTF0Nemaha, KS2.050
June 138:43 PM CDTF0Nemaha, KS1.0100
June 138:44 PM CDTF0Nemaha, KS0.130
June 138:55 PM CDTF1Brown, KS0.250
June 139:00 PM CDTF0Brown, KS0.130
June 139:00 PM CDTF0Baxter, AR0.150
June 1310:00 PM CDTF0Nemaha, KS0.130
June 1310:22 PM CDTF2Nemaha, KS1.0100$3.5 million
June 1310:50 PM CDTF0Saline, NE0.550
June 1310:55 PM CDTF0Brown, KS0.130

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.