Tornadoes · United States · North Carolina · 1998

F0 tornado, Atkinson, North Carolina, June 13, 1998

Name: F0 tornado, Atkinson, North Carolina, June 13, 1998
Start: 1998-06-13T20:21:00.000Z
Location: Atkinson, North Carolina

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Pender County on June 13, 1998, touching down at 4:21 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: June 13, 1998
Touchdown: 4:21 PM EDT (20:21 UTC)
Path length: 0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width: 30 yards (27 m)
Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
County: Pender County
Touchdown point: 34.480, -78.100
Lift-off point: 34.480, -78.100
Record number: 437

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado touchdown reported sighted from Moore's Creek Nat'l Battlefield. No damage cited.

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

The surface observations

Wilmington Intl (ILM), 30 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)	Temp (°F)	Dew point (°F)	Wind	Gust (kt)	Pressure (mb)	Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Wilmington radar (KLTX), 62 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:22 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 track Every 1998 tornado in North Carolina Every tornado in North Carolina since 1950 Warnings in force in North Carolina now The forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 13, 1998

44 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
June 13	11:40 AM MDT	F0	Converse, WY	0.2	30
June 13	4:15 PM EDT	F1	Bladen, NC	0.3	30
June 13	4:25 PM EDT	F1	Bladen, NC	2.0	30		$30,000
June 13	2:47 PM MDT	F0	Cheyenne, NE	0.1	30
June 13	2:57 PM MDT	F0	Goshen, WY	4.0	30
June 13	5:02 PM EDT	F0	Brunswick, NC	0.1	30
June 13	4:45 PM CDT	F0	Blaine, OK	0.1	30	1
June 13	5:00 PM CDT	F0	Smith, KS	0.5	30		$30,000
June 13	4:30 PM MDT	F1	Crook, WY	1.5	30		$20,000
June 13	5:35 PM CDT	F0	Sumner, KS	0.5	60		$50,000
June 13	5:40 PM CDT	F1	Gosper, NE	7.0	80	4	$500,000
June 13	5:45 PM CDT	F1	Lincoln, NE	4.0	80		$250,000
June 13	5:50 PM CDT	F0	Chase, KS	0.5	60
June 13	5:56 PM CDT	F0	Lincoln, NE	0.1	30
June 13	6:02 PM CDT	F0	Lincoln, NE	0.1	30
June 13	6:08 PM CDT	F0	Nuckolls, NE	0.5	30
June 13	6:25 PM CDT	F0	Buffalo, NE	1.0	30
June 13	6:29 PM CDT	F0	Cowley, KS	1.0	110		$500,000
June 13	6:38 PM CDT	F0	Republic, KS	0.2	200
June 13	6:43 PM CDT	F1	Logan, OK	2.0	50
June 13	6:45 PM CDT	F0	Thayer, NE	1.0	30		$150,000
June 13	6:50 PM CDT	F0	Custer, NE	0.1	30
June 13	7:15 PM CDT	F0	Canadian, OK	0.2	30
June 13	7:17 PM CDT	F0	Canadian, OK	0.2	30
June 13	7:45 PM CDT	F0	Canadian, OK	0.1	30
June 13	7:48 PM CDT	F0	Marion, AR	0.1	50
June 13	8:00 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	0.1	30
June 13	8:02 PM CDT	F1	Oklahoma, OK	0.8	50		$300,000
June 13	8:07 PM CDT	F1	Oklahoma, OK	0.8	50		$200,000
June 13	8:08 PM CDT	F2	Oklahoma, OK	1.5	80	4	$150,000
June 13	8:12 PM CDT	F2	Oklahoma, OK	5.5	200	17	$1.0 million
June 13	8:19 PM CDT	F1	Nemaha, KS	4.0	450
June 13	8:30 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	0.1	30
June 13	8:35 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	1.5	50
June 13	8:40 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	2.0	50
June 13	8:43 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	1.0	100
June 13	8:44 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	0.1	30
June 13	8:55 PM CDT	F1	Brown, KS	0.2	50
June 13	9:00 PM CDT	F0	Brown, KS	0.1	30
June 13	9:00 PM CDT	F0	Baxter, AR	0.1	50
June 13	10:00 PM CDT	F0	Nemaha, KS	0.1	30
June 13	10:22 PM CDT	F2	Nemaha, KS	1.0	100		$3.5 million
June 13	10:50 PM CDT	F0	Saline, NE	0.5	50
June 13	10:55 PM CDT	F0	Brown, KS	0.1	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.