Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma

1998 tornadoes in Oklahoma

84 tornadoes touched down in Oklahoma in 1998, 42 percent above the average of the record for the state. None of them killed anybody.

1997 1999 The whole country in 1998

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 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.

Every tornado in Oklahoma in 1998

March 30 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
March 30	5:18 PM CST	F0	Hughes	0.6	30

April 6 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
April 6	8:45 PM CDT	F0	Stephens	0.1	30

May 6 6 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
May 6	6:13 PM CDT	F0	Muskogee	0.1	30
May 6	6:21 PM CDT	F0	Muskogee	0.1	30
May 6	8:27 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	0.1	30
May 6	8:32 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	0.3	30		$2,000
May 6	8:38 PM CDT	F1	LeFlore	0.8	150	2	$100,000
May 6	8:40 PM CDT	F0	Haskell	0.1	30

May 24 16 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
May 24	6:45 PM CDT	F0	Alfalfa	0.1	30
May 24	6:50 PM CDT	F0	Alfalfa	0.1	30
May 24	6:55 PM CDT	F1	Alfalfa	5.0	100	$3,000
May 24	7:23 PM CDT	F0	Grant	0.1	30
May 24	7:25 PM CDT	F0	Grant	2.5	50
May 24	7:39 PM CDT	F0	Grant	0.1	30
May 24	7:40 PM CDT	F0	Grant	0.1	30
May 24	7:46 PM CDT	F0	Grant	1.0	250
May 24	7:47 PM CDT	F0	Grant	0.8	180
May 24	8:20 PM CDT	F1	Grant	2.0	80	$10,000
May 24	8:29 PM CDT	F0	Grant	5.0	280	$1,000
May 24	8:35 PM CDT	F1	Grant	1.0	200	$10,000
May 24	8:50 PM CDT	F1	Grant	2.0	400	$10,000
May 24	8:55 PM CDT	F0	Kay	0.1	30
May 24	9:10 PM CDT	F3	Grant	5.3	1,300	$2.0 million
May 24	10:30 PM CDT	F0	Kay	0.1	30

June 8 13 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
June 8	7:11 PM CDT	F1	Pottawatomie	3.5	50
June 8	7:35 PM CDT	F2	Seminole	8.0	440
June 8	7:50 PM CDT	F2	Hughes	8.0	590
June 8	8:28 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	9.0	200
June 8	8:43 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	8.0	200
June 8	8:55 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	2.0	100
June 8	9:10 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	12.0	200
June 8	9:31 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	0.5	30
June 8	9:40 PM CDT	F1	Pittsburg	1.0	50	$30,000
June 8	9:41 PM CDT	F0	Haskell	4.0	100
June 8	9:51 PM CDT	F0	Pittsburg	0.5	30
June 8	9:55 PM CDT	F2	Haskell	0.5	50	$60,000
June 8	10:56 PM CDT	F0	LeFlore	0.5	30

June 13 9 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
June 13	4:45 PM CDT	F0	Blaine	0.1	30	1
June 13	6:43 PM CDT	F1	Logan	2.0	50
June 13	7:15 PM CDT	F0	Canadian	0.2	30
June 13	7:17 PM CDT	F0	Canadian	0.2	30
June 13	7:45 PM CDT	F0	Canadian	0.1	30
June 13	8:02 PM CDT	F1	Oklahoma	0.8	50		$300,000
June 13	8:07 PM CDT	F1	Oklahoma	0.8	50		$200,000
June 13	8:08 PM CDT	F2	Oklahoma	1.5	80	4	$150,000
June 13	8:12 PM CDT	F2	Oklahoma	5.5	200	17	$1.0 million

June 18 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
June 18	6:40 PM CDT	F0	Wagoner	0.5	50			$10,000

July 23 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
July 23	4:10 PM CDT	F0	Blaine	0.1	30
July 23	4:30 PM CDT	F0	Blaine	0.2	50			$3,000

August 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
August 10	3:30 PM CDT	F0	Greer	0.3	50			$1,000

September 21 3 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Damage
September 21	4:40 PM CDT	F1	Garfield	1.0	100	$40,000
September 21	5:25 PM CDT	F0	Logan	1.5	50	$1,000
September 21	5:45 PM CDT	F0	Blaine	0.5	50	$10,000

October 4 26 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Injuries	Damage
October 4	3:25 PM CDT	F2	Woods	10.0	440		$80,000
October 4	4:05 PM CDT	F0	Alfalfa	0.1	30
October 4	5:04 PM CDT	F0	Grant	0.1	30
October 4	5:38 PM CDT	F0	Blaine	1.5	30
October 4	5:50 PM CDT	F2	Blaine	12.0	200		$50,000
October 4	6:14 PM CDT	F0	Comanche	0.3	50
October 4	6:28 PM CDT	F1	Kingfisher	7.0	100		$30,000
October 4	6:45 PM CDT	F0	Caddo	0.5	30		$10,000
October 4	6:47 PM CDT	F1	Payne	6.0	100		$40,000
October 4	6:54 PM CDT	F2	Grady	1.5	200		$50,000
October 4	7:38 PM CDT	F1	Pawnee	0.4	130		$800,000
October 4	8:15 PM CDT	F2	McClain	5.0	80		$130,000
October 4	8:26 PM CDT	F0	Cleveland	1.5	30		$1,000
October 4	8:34 PM CDT	F2	Cleveland	3.0	580		$2.0 million
October 4	8:56 PM CDT	F0	Osage	1.0	80		$40,000
October 4	9:37 PM CDT	F2	Lincoln	3.0	580		$60,000
October 4	9:45 PM CDT	F2	Lincoln	6.0	580		$40,000
October 4	9:50 PM CDT	F1	Pottawatomie	3.0	100		$40,000
October 4	9:52 PM CDT	F1	Lincoln	8.0	440	6	$50,000
October 4	9:58 PM CDT	F1	Pottawatomie	2.0	100		$70,000
October 4	10:05 PM CDT	F0	Nowata	8.0	50		$50,000
October 4	10:08 PM CDT	F3	Pottawatomie	10.0	880	1	$1.6 million
October 4	10:19 PM CDT	F0	Tulsa	0.5	50
October 4	10:37 PM CDT	F2	Okfuskee	27.0	1,410	4	$510,000
October 4	11:17 PM CDT	F1	Okmulgee	1.0	100		$10,000
October 4	12:27 AM CDT	F0	Wagoner	0.8	50		$10,000

October 28 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
October 28	4:55 PM CST	F0	Logan	0.3	30

November 9 2 tornadoes

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 9	9:15 PM CST	F1	McClain	4.5	130			$110,000
November 9	11:55 PM CST	F0	Latimer	0.5	50			$10,000

November 10 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 10	12:35 AM CST	F1	Sebastian to AR	5.0	200			$760,000

November 29 1 tornado

Date	Time	Rating	Where	Path (mi)	Width (yd)	Deaths	Injuries	Damage
November 29	8:10 PM CST	F0	Payne	2.0	100			$20,000

Nearby

Every tornado in Oklahoma since 1950 Warnings in force in Oklahoma The live radar over Oklahoma

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.