Tornadoes · United States · Nebraska · 1998

F0 tornado, Benedict, Nebraska, May 15, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.5 miles across York County on May 15, 1998, touching down at 12:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $250,000 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 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
May 15, 1998
Touchdown
12:30 PM CDT (17:30 UTC)
Path length
0.5 miles (0.8 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$250,000
County
York County
Touchdown point
40.980, -97.620
Lift-off point
40.980, -97.620
Record number
1013

What the Weather Service recorded

Midday thunderstorms spawned a tornado south of York damaging a farmstead significantly. The tornado set down two miles north of Fairmont and was on the ground for seven miles before lifting just east of McCool Junction. The tornado nearly destroyed at least one farmstead and caused damage to power poles and lines and center pivot systems. A semi tractor trailer was overturned three miles southeast of York. The driver sustained minor injuries. The same storm also produced a brief tornado south of Benedict destroying two hog confinement facilities but no hogs were injured.

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

The warnings

27 minutes of warning. NWS GID issued a tornado warning for this county at 17:03 UTC, 27 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 18:05 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
16:56 UTC17:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningGID
17:03 UTC18:05 UTCTornado WarningGID

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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

5.5 hours before the tornado, 111 km from the path. May 15, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1998-05-15Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1194 joules per kilogram, CIN -370, 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, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1998-05-15The 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 -76 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 64 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
1194 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-370 J/kg
Surface CAPE
550 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1627 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
64 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-76 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

6.5 hours after it, 111 km from the path. May 16, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1998-05-16Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 33 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 863 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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1998-05-16The 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 -64 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 34 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
33 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
86 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
863 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-64 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
54 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Aurora (AUH), 33 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
15:30 UTC5955.410° 20 kt24999
16:51 UTC5955.4280° 11 kt1002
17:10 UTC57.255.4290° 13 kt1002
17:31 UTC55.453.680° 15 kt361002.4
17:50 UTC51.848.2180° 15 kt281002
18:09 UTC51.850250° 16 kt241002
18:33 UTC55.453.6240° 19 kt1001.4
19:10 UTC57.257.2290° 18 kt251001.7
19:29 UTC60.857.2300° 22 kt281002

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

The radar

The Grand Island radar (KUEX), 101 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 17:31 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 NebraskaEvery tornado in Nebraska since 1950Warnings in force in Nebraska nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of May 15, 1998

25 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 1511:30 AM CDTF0Sioux, IA1.050$30,000
May 1512:01 PM CDTF2Fillmore, NE9.070$1.0 million
May 152:30 PM CDTF2Kossuth, IA31.3180$1.0 million
May 153:10 PM CDTF1Faribault, MN0.150
May 153:58 PM CDTF1Wright, IA11.060$50,000
May 154:00 PM CDTF1Crawford, IA2.550$100,000
May 154:00 PM CDTF0Crawford, IA0.230
May 154:10 PM CDTF1McLeod, MN0.150$100,000
May 154:13 PM CDTF0Sioux, IA0.150
May 154:15 PM CDTF0Wapello, IA0.130
May 154:16 PM CDTF1Worth, IA2.850$150,000
May 154:20 PM CDTF0Sioux, IA0.150
May 154:21 PM CDTF0Sac, IA0.130
May 154:40 PM CDTF1Stearns, MN9.030130$750,000
May 154:40 PM CDTF1Ramsey, MN13.0350
May 155:00 PM CDTF1Olmsted, MN8.080$50,000
May 155:05 PM CDTF3Washington, IA47.040047$15 million
May 155:50 PM CDTF3Buffalo, WI8.0606$120,000
May 156:05 PM CDTF1Dunn, WI18.01501$1.9 million
May 156:30 PM CDTF0Jones, IA0.230$1,000
May 157:10 PM CDTF0Dubuque, IA0.330
May 157:40 PM CDTF0La Crosse, WI2.0501$40,000
May 157:45 PM CDTF2Lafayette, WI20.015011$1.7 million
May 157:55 PM CDTF0Henry, IL1.030
May 158:05 PM CDTF0Fulton, IL0.8150$4,000

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.