F0 tornado, Chester, Nebraska, June 13, 1998

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.

Rating

F0

Date

June 13, 1998

Touchdown

6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Thayer County

Touchdown point

40.020, -97.600

Lift-off point

40.000, -97.600

Record number

1065

A warm front lifting north and a strong jet stream played a key role in the eruption of severe thunderstorms in the late afternoon in south-central Nebraska. Large hail, damaging thunderstorm winds and two tornadic thunderstorms caused millions of dollars in damage.The first tornadic thunderstorm occurred in northern Gosper county just outside of the town of Elwood. The tornado sat down to the southwest of Elwood then travelled east. After a mile, the tornado turned and travelled due north. It hit one farmstead, heavily damaging the home and totally destroying several outbuildings. The path of the tornado when right down the middle of US highway 283. A truck driver and a family of three were travelling north of Elwood when they realized the tornado was heading toward them. They abandon their vehicles and sought cover in a ditch. The tornado passed nearly overhead but the four survived with only minor injuries. The one car was totalled and the semi-truck, loaded with ice cream, was heavily damaged. The cargo was a total loss. This same severe thunderstorm marched northeast and dropped another brief tornado just southeast of Odessa but no significant damage was reported.Another severe thunderstorm, which began in Smith county, Kansas, moved just north of the stateline and produced at least two confirmed touchdowns. One was reported two miles north of Bostwick but did little damage. Another tornado passed just to the southeast of Chester and damaged a farmstead. The tornado sat down about a mile east of town then travelled southeast. Damage at the farm was mainly confined to a couple of outbuildings. The people in the farm house were not injured. At least 25 center irrigation pivots were lost to the storm. Damaging baseball sized hail was noted in Nelson and near Red Cloud. Hail to the size of soft balls was reported eight miles southeast of Red Cloud. In Clay county, residents were nailed twice with strong winds and hail during the evening. The first occurred near 6 pm as 60 to 80 mph winds roared across the county. The winds were likely outflow from the severe thunderstorm just to the south of the area. At least two farmsteads had out building damage and tree damage was significant. About three hours later, a different severe thunderstorm dumped golf ball sized hail while producing 60+ mph winds in central Clay county. Many vehicles in Clay Center were damaged and 25 windows were shattered in the Courthouse. Corn and soybean loss totalled over two million dollars as some crops were levelled by the wind and hail.

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

23 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:22 UTC, 23 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:10 UTC.

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 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 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.

Concordia (CNK), 51 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

44 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.