Tornadoes · United States · Ohio · 1998

F2 tornado, Port Clinton, Ohio, June 24, 1998

This F2 tornado ran 3.5 miles across Ottawa County on June 24, 1998, touching down at 8:45 PM EDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 13, and did $20 million 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 mph

    Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

  3. F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado

    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
F2
Date
June 24, 1998
Touchdown
8:45 PM EDT (00:45 UTC)
Path length
3.5 miles (5.6 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
13
Property damage
$20 million
County
Ottawa County
Touchdown point
41.520, -82.950
Lift-off point
41.520, -82.950
Record number
447

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado touched down approximately 10 miles west of Port Clinton and just west of the Davis Bessie power plant. Winds were between 113 and 157 miles per hour. Considerable damage occurred, with some barns completely destroyed and an apartment complex heavily damaged. Sixty three homes were destroyed, 63 sustained major damage, 238 had minor damage, semi trucks and mobile homes were overturned and trees and utility poles were downed. Loss of power lines outside Davis Bessie triggered a shutdown and a second stage alert; power was out for several days in places. A state of emergency was declared and all roads were closed in the county. Many buildings were destroyed and trees were downed at Camp Perry. A tree containing an eagle's nest with 2 eaglets was blown down. One of the eaglets survived.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:20 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.

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 00:00Z

0.8 hours before the tornado, 139 km from the path. June 25, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1998-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -81357, lifted condensation level 1078 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 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, Detroit, MI at 00:00Z on 1998-06-25The 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 17 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 19 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-81357 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1078 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
4 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
17 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
0 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Detroit, MI (KDTX), 12:00Z

11.2 hours after it, 139 km from the path. June 25, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1998-06-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2451 joules per kilogram, CIN -35, lifted condensation level 881 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, Detroit, MI at 12:00Z on 1998-06-25The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 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
2451 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-35 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1581 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
881 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
64 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.2
Supercell composite
1.3
0-3 km lapse rate
4.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Toledo (TDZ), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:53 UTC9169170° 12 kt1014.9
23:53 UTC9070180° 11 kt1014.9HZ
00:53 UTC776730° 8 kt271016.3
01:53 UTC7464120° 12 kt1016.6

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

The radar

The Cleveland radar (KCLE), 92 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:47 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 June 24, 1998

6 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 245:25 PM EDTF0Eaton, MI0.130$10,000
June 246:06 PM EDTF1Jackson, MI11.350$500,000
June 245:20 PM MDTF1Fall River, SD0.3701$170,000
June 247:10 PM CDTF0McIntosh, ND0.230
June 247:23 PM CDTF0Polk, MN0.230
June 249:33 PM CDTF0Olmsted, MN0.250

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.