F0 tornado, Watova to Nowata, Oklahoma, October 4, 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

October 4, 1998

Touchdown

10:05 PM CDT (03:05 UTC)

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$50,000

County

Nowata County

Touchdown point

36.630, -95.620

Lift-off point

36.650, -95.470

Record number

474

Summary of tornado/severe events for October 4 PM - October 5 1998:Oklahoma's worst-ever October tornado outbreak took place on the evening of October 4. At least 22 tornadoes occurred throughout Oklahoma, of which seven were in northeast Oklahoma. This outbreak of severe weather resulted as a powerful upper level storm system moved across the central plains and surface low pressure developed over southwest Oklahoma. Warm humid air quickly invaded the area on the morning of October 4 and then collided with a cold front moving southward by evening. The threat from these storms ran the full range of possibilities from destructive tornadoes to damaging winds to very large hail up to the size of baseballs.Numerous storms occurred on the evening of October 4, mainly north of Interstate 40. The two most significant storms both moved eastward out of central Oklahoma. One produced an F1 tornado that passed through Pawnee. The other produced a 27-mile track F2 tornado that started in Okfuskee County and ended in Okmulgee County. This second storm later went on to produce considerable hail and wind damage in the city of Okmulgee. Many other thunderstorms developed during the evening in central Oklahoma, fanned by upper level winds in excess of 100 knots. These storms moved into northeast Oklahoma, causing additional severe weather late in the evening that gradually spread eastward to the Arkansas state line. After midnight, the storms congealed and became a slow-moving line of thunderstorms that sat over nearly the same area of northeast Oklahoma through the overnight hours. The severe threat gradually diminished through the night, and flooding became the main problem. For more information on the flooding, see the separate event entry for the flooding. By late on the afternoon of October 5, the slow-moving line had moved into southeast Oklahoma and flared up during the heat of the afternoon, causing a few additional severe weather reports in the form of strong winds.

An F0 tornado touched down just northeast of Watova around 1005 PM CDT, destroying a barn on Section Road 27. The tornado continued east, destroying the old one-room Terrell School Building near Section Roads 27 and 415. A mobile home at Section Roads 26 and 416 lost most of its roof. Portions of the roof were wrapped around trees over one hundred yards southeast of the home. From there, the tornado most likely crossed Lake Oologah and continued to an area 3 miles north of New Alluwe by 1015 PM CDT, where the tornado destroyed a shed, damaged a house, damaged a barn, and knocked down several trees. The tornado was actually seen by a trained spotter 3 miles north of New Alluwe.

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

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.

Bartlesville/Philli (BVO), 44 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 OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

28 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.