Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 1998
F1 tornado, Havelock, North Carolina, August 26, 1998
This F1 tornado ran 0.5 miles across Craven County on August 26, 1998, touching down at 3:10 PM EDT and reaching 40 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
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
- F1
- Date
- August 26, 1998
- Touchdown
- 3:10 PM EDT (19:10 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.5 miles (0.8 km)
- Path width
- 40 yards (37 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $200,000
- County
- Craven County
- Touchdown point
- 34.970, -76.980
- Lift-off point
- 34.970, -76.980
- Record number
- 581
What the Weather Service recorded
A brief tornado touchdown in the Riverdale section of Craven county, about 8 miles northwest of Havelock. This storm completely knocked a home off it's foundation and caused damage to several other homes in the neighborhood. The home that was destroyed had an anemometer which stopped on 105 mph.
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.
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 surface observations
Cherry_point_mcas (NKT), 12 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 17:55 UTC | 78 | 76 | 140° 26 kt | 39 | 1002.7 | +RA BR |
| 18:55 UTC | 80 | 77 | 90° 21 kt | 33 | 1000.7 | -RA BR |
| 19:55 UTC | 80 | 77 | 110° 26 kt | 33 | 999.7 | RA FG |
| 20:55 UTC | 80 | 76 | 110° 32 kt | 39 | 999 | -SHRA BR |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Morehead City radar (KMHX), 24 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:12 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 North CarolinaEvery tornado in North Carolina since 1950Warnings in force in North Carolina nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of August 26, 1998
8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| August 26 | 1:25 PM EDT | F1 | Carteret, NC | 0.3 | 30 | $230,000 | ||
| August 26 | 5:00 PM EDT | F0 | Pamlico, NC | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| August 26 | 5:05 PM EDT | F1 | Duplin, NC | 0.2 | 30 | $90,000 | ||
| August 26 | 5:35 PM EDT | F0 | Tyrrell, NC | 2.0 | 30 | $40,000 | ||
| August 26 | 6:25 PM EDT | F0 | Chowan, NC | 0.3 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| August 26 | 6:39 PM EDT | F0 | Beaufort, NC | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| August 26 | 6:50 PM CDT | F0 | Pembina, ND | 0.5 | 30 | |||
| August 26 | 8:00 PM EDT | F0 | Washington, NC | 0.5 | 40 | $70,000 |
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.