F1 tornado, Otsego to Zanesville, Ohio, June 27, 1998

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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 27, 1998

Touchdown

6:45 PM EDT (22:45 UTC)

Path length

2.5 miles (4.0 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

2

Property damage

$250,000

County

Muskingum County

Touchdown point

40.150, -81.820

Lift-off point

40.080, -81.820

Record number

634

An F1 tornado touched down along Big Run Road. It travelled to the southeast crossing Ferncliff Road and moved across Edgemoor Road before dissipating. Many trees along the path were toppled or snapped. A mobile home was picked up and pushed westward. It was then rolled over and destroyed. Two people inside the trailer at the time were injured. A double-wide modular home lost its entire roof and was essentially totalled. A two-story frame home was severely damaged, with parts of the roof and walls blown off. As the tornado dissipated, eyewitnesses reported seeing debris in the form or boards, limbs, siding, etc. suddenly start raining from the sky.

A weak F1 tornado with winds estimated at 80 MPH left a path of toppled and snapped trees as it touched down near the radio station WHIZ just southeast of Zanesville and moved to the southeast. The only property damage was to an old wood garage that was completely destroyed.

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

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:56 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 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.

Zanesville (ZZV), 20 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 OhioEvery tornado in Ohio since 1950Warnings in force in Ohio nowThe forecast where you are

32 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.