Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 1998

F1 tornado, Gilboa, Ohio, July 19, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Putnam County on July 19, 1998, touching down at 7:45 PM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $40,000 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 mph

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mphthis tornado

    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
F1
Date
July 19, 1998
Touchdown
7:45 PM EDT (23:45 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$40,000
County
Putnam County
Touchdown point
41.000, -83.920
Lift-off point
41.000, -83.920
Record number
1165

What the Weather Service recorded

Synoptic and Mesoscale conditions for July 19th...A bow echo squall line moved acrss northern Indiana into Ohio and produced widespread wind damage. The two tornadoes reported with this event were likely gustnadoes that spun-up along the apex of bow echo as seen in the damage path and length which is consistent with gustnadoes.

BRICK HOME BADLY DAMAGED. ROOF TORN OFF AND LARGE CHUNKS OF BRICK CHIMNEY STREWN ABOUT YARD. TREE WAS FELLED ON CAMPER-TRAILER.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:38 UTC23:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningIWX
22:47 UTC23:35 UTCTornado WarningIWX
23:29 UTC00:15 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningIWX

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 10:53 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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

11.8 hours before the tornado, 175 km from the path. July 19, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 1998-07-19Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 585 joules per kilogram, CIN -53, lifted condensation level 950 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 1998-07-19The 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 70 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.1939Sfc1 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
585 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-53 J/kg
Surface CAPE
751 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
950 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
70 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.2
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

0.2 hours after it, 175 km from the path. July 20, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 1998-07-20Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2300 joules per kilogram, CIN -43, lifted condensation level 1282 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 1998-07-20The 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 189 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 37 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2300 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-43 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3047 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1282 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
189 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
232 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.0
Supercell composite
7.1
0-3 km lapse rate
7.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Findlay (FDY), 21 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC89.671.6220° 9 kt181010.5
22:53 UTC8671.6210° 10 kt1009.1
23:00 UTC8671.6220° 8 kt171009.5TS
23:13 UTC78.864.4250° 28 kt401010.5-TSRA
23:21 UTC73.464.4290° 31 kt401011.9-TSRA
23:37 UTC69.864.4250° 14 kt221010.5-TSRA
23:54 UTC6864.4270° 7 kt1010.8-TSRA
00:17 UTC69.866.2300° 13 kt231012.5TSRA
00:33 UTC69.866.2210° 5 kt1011.2-TSRA
00:50 UTC69.866.2200° 8 kt1011.2-TSRA

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

The radar

The Northern Indiana radar (KIWX), 154 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:43 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 OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of July 19, 1998

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 193:01 PM MDTF0Weld, CO0.130
July 197:45 PM EDTF0Allen, OH0.130
July 198:25 PM CDTF0LaPorte, IN1.530

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.