Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1998

F0 tornado, Meridian, Oklahoma, October 28, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.3 miles across Logan County on October 28, 1998, touching down at 4:55 PM CST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
October 28, 1998
Touchdown
4:55 PM CST (22:55 UTC)
Path length
0.3 miles (0.5 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Logan County
Touchdown point
35.920, -97.250
Lift-off point
35.920, -97.250
Record number
1422

What the Weather Service recorded

Widely scattered thunderstorms developed over portions of central Oklahoma during the afternoon of the 28th. One thunderstorm was responsible for a lightning strike at a home in the Brownsville addition in Bethany, which is in Oklahoma County. The result was a fire that destroyed much of the house. There was also a report of a small and brief tornado witnessed by a local TV media chaser 6 miles north of Meridian in Logan County. No damage was reported (F0).

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:38 UTC00:15 UTCTornado WarningOUN

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 Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:57 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.

Norman, OK (KOUN), 12:00Z

10.9 hours before the tornado, 79 km from the path. October 28, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 1998-10-28Temperature 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 -309, lifted condensation level 1023 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, Norman, OK at 12:00Z on 1998-10-28The 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 268 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 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
-309 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1023 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
268 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
277 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Norman, OK (KOUN), 00:00Z

1.1 hours after it, 79 km from the path. October 29, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 1998-10-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 358 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 1050 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, Norman, OK at 00:00Z on 1998-10-29The 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 299 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 50 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
358 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1032 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1050 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
50 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
299 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
441 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.5
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Guthrie (GOK), 17 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC7369150° 6 kt1009.1
22:18 UTC71.669.80° 0 kt1008.8-RA BR
22:23 UTC71.669.8150° 5 kt1008.8-RA
22:53 UTC7268190° 6 kt1008.8-RA
23:53 UTC7168170° 7 kt1009.1
00:53 UTC7168180° 9 kt1009.1

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of October 28, 1998

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 284:40 PM CSTF1Holt, NE5.080$20,000
October 285:15 PM CSTF0Holt, NE8.050
October 285:25 PM CSTF0Holt, NE0.130
October 285:30 PM CSTF0Holt, NE0.230$10,000
October 285:40 PM CSTF0Wheeler, NE1.050$30,000
October 285:50 PM CSTF0Holt, NE3.030
October 285:50 PM CSTF2Holt, NE2.0100$50,000
October 286:40 PM CSTF0Holt, NE0.130

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.