F1 tornado, Ft Smith to Ft Smith Muni Arpt, Oklahoma, November 10, 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

November 10, 1998

Touchdown

12:35 AM CST (06:35 UTC)

Path length

5.0 miles (8.0 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$760,000

Counties

Sebastian and LeFlore counties

Touchdown point

35.250, -94.450

Lift-off point

35.330, -94.370

Record number

1324

Summary of events for November 9-10 1998:A solid line of severe thunderstorms raced across northwest and west central Arkansas on the evening and early morning of Nov 9-10. This line of storms was in association with the cold front trailing from a powerful "Colorado low" moving across the central and northern plains. This line of storms produced strong to severe wind gusts along its entire length. However, an isolated supercell thunderstorm developed within the line of storms southwest of Fort Smith and produced an F1 tornado as it travelled across the southern part of Fort Smith. The same storm produced an F0 tornado further east in Franklin County. Fortunately, no deaths or injuries were associated with the severe weather.

An F1 tornado touched down in extreme eastern Oklahoma between Arkoma and Pocola and then moved northeast into western Arkansas, moving across the southern part of Fort Smith and finally lifting at the Fort Smith Regional Airport (FSM). Along the way, many homes and businesses sustained damage ranging from minor to major. This includes several homes in the Random Acres subdivision near the Oklahoma border where shingles were blown off many roofs. Trees and power lines were blown down throughout the tornado's path.Some of the tornado's worst damage occurred at the Fort Smith Regional Airport, where eight private and corporate airplanes were damaged, including three single-engine planes that were flipped. Four of the planes that received the most damage were outside hangars. The storm also damaged nine hangars, including three corporate and six general aviation facilities. The weather observer at the airport officially recorded a tornado, and the ASOS at the airport measured a peak wind gust of 57 kts (66 mph) at 1244 AM.Otherwise, seven thousand residences in the south part of Fort Smith lost power in the storm. Sutherland Central Distribution Center on US Hwy 71 lost several metal buildings and had some roof damage. Reeder Simco Truck Center on south Zero Street had its showroom glass blown in, and a tractor-trailer was turned over. A photo in the Southwest-Times Record daily newspaper showed cleanup efforts from a large tree that had fallen into a home's driveway in the 6800 block of S. Seventh street.

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

20 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:15 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:00 UTC.

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 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 4 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:36 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

11 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.