F0 tornado, Lamar, Oklahoma, March 30, 1998

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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 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

F0

Date

March 30, 1998

Touchdown

5:18 PM CST (23:18 UTC)

Path length

0.6 miles (1.0 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

County

Hughes County

Touchdown point

35.100, -96.130

Lift-off point

35.100, -96.130

Record number

333

Summary of events of March 30th:A line of thunderstorms formed along a cold front as it moved east across central and southern Oklahoma. The line extended across the state from Kansas to Texas and produced large hail, damaging winds, and one tornado. The largest hail (golf ball-sized) was reported in Hickory in Murray County. Widespread wind damage occurred in Chickasha in Grady County as one storm evolved into a bow-echo. As the line of storms continued to move east, they developed comma-head radar signatures. One of these storms produced a small tornado (F0) in Lamar in Hughes County. See preceding individual Storm Data entries for further information and additional reports.

A severe thunderstorm produced a brief tornado in Lamar. Witnesses described a brief funnel that developed as the storm came across Lamar Mountain just southwest of town. This first funnel lifted and then a second funnel formed and touched down. The tornado moved north along the west edge of town for about .4 miles then veered to the northeast before lifting. On the southern end of the path, the roof was blown off a cow shed. Just north of there a travel trailer and dog house were blown over, an antenna was blown down, and a tree was uprooted. Shutters were blown off the next house to the north. About a block north of there the tornado blew the roof off a workshop and tossed a trampoline over a house. At this point the tornado turned to the northeast and destroyed a shed across from the post office and damaged a front porch. The damage path was about .6 miles long, and the tornado was rated F0.

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 10:52 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.

The Norman radar (KTLX), 107 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:18 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

2 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.