F0 tornado, Henderson, Nevada, September 11, 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

September 11, 1998

Touchdown

12:56 PM PDT (19:56 UTC)

Path length

0.1 miles (0.2 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$30,000

County

Clark County

Touchdown point

36.030, -114.980

Lift-off point

36.030, -114.980

Record number

693

Severe thunderstorms pounded the Las Vegas Valley and Lake Mead for a few hours producing golfball size hail, a small tornado and widespread flash flooding. Large hail began falling shortly before 11 am PST and numerous hail reports came in for the next couple hours with some episodes causing damage to several automobiles. A small tornado tore the roof off a Henderson warehouse and destroyed a large block wall at a service station a short distance away. Heavy rain fell mainly on the east side of the metro area with amounts up to 1.85 inches in a two hour period. As a result flash flooding filled streets and washes and trapped several motorists although no serious injuries occurred. The heavy rain damaged about one acre of the 750 acre Sunrise Landfill and carried significant amounts of debris into the Las Vegas wash. The Clark County School District activated the "shelter-in-place" policy for school children at approximately 30 schools around the area. Children were not bussed home until after flooding had subsided.

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

28 minutes of warning. NWS VEF issued a tornado warning for this county at 19:28 UTC, 28 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:15 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.

Las Vegas - Harry Reid Intl (LAS), 17 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 NevadaEvery tornado in Nevada since 1950Warnings in force in Nevada nowThe forecast where you are

7 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.