Tornadoes · United States · Michigan · 1998
F0 tornado, Atlanta, Michigan, May 19, 1998
This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Montmorency County on May 19, 1998, touching down at 5:05 PM EDT 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.
F040 to 72 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 19, 1998
- Touchdown
- 5:05 PM EDT (21:05 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
- Path width
- 30 yards (27 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Montmorency County
- Touchdown point
- 44.970, -84.100
- Lift-off point
- 44.970, -84.100
- Record number
- 236
What the Weather Service recorded
The brief tornado touchdown occurred in association with a supercell which developed when easterly winds associated with an outflow boundary from earlier storms interacted with westerly synoptic scale winds. The tornado briefly touched down then quickly lifted back up and was nearly stationary while on the ground. The tornado did no damage.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
17 minutes of warning. NWS APX issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:48 UTC, 17 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 21:50 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17:26 UTC | 18:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | APX |
| 20:28 UTC | 21:35 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | APX |
| 20:48 UTC | 21:50 UTC | Tornado Warning | APX |
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 10:48 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 surface observations
Alpena (APN), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 19:14 UTC | 66.2 | 60.8 | 310° 7 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 19:45 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 19:54 UTC | 65 | 63 | 100° 3 kt | 1011.2 | VCTS | |
| 20:39 UTC | 66.2 | 60.8 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.2 | ||
| 20:54 UTC | 66 | 62 | 0° 0 kt | 1011.5 | TS | |
| 21:39 UTC | 66.2 | 62.6 | 250° 3 kt | 1010.8 | ||
| 21:54 UTC | 70 | 64 | 250° 6 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 22:54 UTC | 74 | 66 | 4 kt | 1010.2 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in MichiganEvery tornado in Michigan since 1950Warnings in force in Michigan nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 19, 1998
12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 19 | 4:45 PM CDT | F0 | Polk, IA | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 4:45 PM CDT | F0 | Marion, IA | 0.7 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 4:02 PM MDT | F0 | Laramie, WY | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 5:30 PM CDT | F0 | Vermilion, IL | 0.3 | 40 | $50,000 | ||
| May 19 | 4:32 PM MDT | F0 | Kimball, NE | 0.5 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 6:10 PM EST | F0 | Starke, IN | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 6:40 PM EST | F0 | Vermillion, IN | 0.1 | 80 | $10,000 | ||
| May 19 | 6:45 PM EST | F0 | Wabash, IN | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 7:20 PM CDT | F0 | Logan, IL | 0.2 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| May 19 | 7:30 PM CDT | F0 | Edgar, IL | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 7:30 PM CDT | F0 | Edgar, IL | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 19 | 8:45 PM CDT | F0 | Coles, IL | 0.5 | 30 |
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.