Tornadoes · United States · Pennsylvania · 1998
F2 tornado, Quarryville to Ninepoints, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1998
From Quarryville to Ninepoints, this F2 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Lancaster County on May 31, 1998, touching down at 12:30 AM EDT and reaching 880 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.
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 mphthis tornado
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.
The record
- Rating
- F2
- Date
- May 31, 1998
- Touchdown
- 12:30 AM EDT (04:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 7.0 miles (11.3 km)
- Path width
- 880 yards (805 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Lancaster County
- Touchdown point
- 39.900, -76.170
- Lift-off point
- 39.920, -76.050
- Record number
- 314
What the Weather Service recorded
The tornado struck about 12:30am EDT in the early morning hours of Monday, June 1st. Initial touchdown was just south of Quarryville. The tornado traveled east along a 7 mile path to Ninepoints. Damage was most extensive in the Ninepoints area and was rated an F2 intensity (112 to 157 mph). The width of the F2 damage was probably 100 to 200 yards wide with lesser damage extending out to 1/2 mile. At least 6 homes had significant damage. One home had the roof and second floor removed. Several barns were damaged and at least one destroyed. Trees were blown down on a number of homes. One person reported sighting the tornado. Only one minor injury was reported.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:56 UTC | 01:30 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
| 04:09 UTC | 05:25 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | CTP |
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 10:32 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.
Phillips Aaf/Abe, MD (KAPG), 12:00Z
7.5 hours after it, 49 km from the path. June 1, 1998.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 45 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -96 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 810 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 807 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -135 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -44 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.1
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.3 K/km
The surface observations
Lancaster (LNS), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 02:47 UTC | 80.6 | 69.8 | 210° 10 kt | 1000.7 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Dover AFB radar (KDOX), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 04:28 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in PennsylvaniaEvery tornado in Pennsylvania since 1950Warnings in force in Pennsylvania nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 31, 1998
45 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 31 | 1:20 AM CDT | F0 | Marathon, WI | 0.2 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| May 31 | 2:20 AM CDT | F1 | Calumet, WI | 1.4 | 80 | $300,000 | ||
| May 31 | 5:30 AM EDT | F0 | Missaukee, MI | 0.3 | 100 | |||
| May 31 | 5:35 AM EDT | F0 | Antrim, MI | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 31 | 5:50 AM EDT | F1 | Kalkaska, MI | 7.0 | 100 | |||
| May 31 | 5:55 AM EDT | F0 | Crawford, MI | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 31 | 6:25 AM EDT | F0 | Genesee, MI | 0.1 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| May 31 | 12:44 PM EST | F0 | DeKalb, IN | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 31 | 1:15 PM EST | F0 | DeKalb, IN | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 31 | 3:04 PM EDT | F0 | Putnam, OH | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 31 | 3:22 PM CDT | F3 | Saratoga, NY to VT | 30.5 | 970 | 68 | $71 million | |
| May 31 | 4:37 PM EDT | F1 | Albany, NY | 3.5 | 80 | $30,000 | ||
| May 31 | 4:45 PM EDT | F0 | Delaware, NY | 3.0 | 80 | $150,000 | ||
| May 31 | 5:05 PM EDT | F1 | Chautauqua, NY | 2.0 | 30 | 2 | $70,000 | |
| May 31 | 5:20 PM EDT | F1 | Lycoming, PA | 0.5 | 440 | |||
| May 31 | 5:30 PM EDT | F3 | Tioga, NY | 62.0 | 200 | 12 | $2.5 million | |
| May 31 | 5:50 PM EDT | F2 | Chenango, NY | 1.0 | 1,500 | $500,000 | ||
| May 31 | 6:00 PM EDT | F0 | Chenango, NY | 0.5 | 80 | $140,000 | ||
| May 31 | 6:03 PM EDT | F2 | Hillsborough, NH | 0.5 | 90 | $30,000 | ||
| May 31 | 6:25 PM EDT | F0 | Otsego, NY | 0.7 | 30 | $70,000 | ||
| May 31 | 6:30 PM EDT | F3 | Otsego, NY | 5.0 | 800 | 3 | $800,000 | |
| May 31 | 7:00 PM EDT | F0 | Luzerne, PA | 0.2 | 40 | $50,000 | ||
| May 31 | 7:22 PM EDT | F2 | Rensselaer, NY | 8.0 | 200 | $180,000 | ||
| May 31 | 7:25 PM EDT | F1 | Clinton, OH | 0.3 | 100 | $20,000 | ||
| May 31 | 7:30 PM EDT | F1 | Elk, PA | 3.0 | 100 | |||
| May 31 | 7:30 PM EDT | F0 | Elk, PA | 0.5 | 100 | |||
| May 31 | 8:08 PM EDT | F2 | Pike, PA | 2.0 | 550 | $200,000 | ||
| May 31 | 8:10 PM EDT | F1 | Cameron, PA | 5.0 | 50 | |||
| May 31 | 8:20 PM EDT | F3 | Pike, PA | 20.0 | 200 | 2 | $1.0 million | |
| May 31 | 8:20 PM EDT | F2 | Pike, PA | 3.0 | 200 | $400,000 | ||
| May 31 | 8:20 PM EDT | F0 | Lackawanna, PA | 0.3 | 30 | $70,000 | ||
| May 31 | 8:20 PM EDT | F0 | Lackawanna, PA | 0.1 | 100 | $100,000 | ||
| May 31 | 8:45 PM EDT | F1 | Lycoming, PA | 7.0 | 80 | |||
| May 31 | 8:50 PM EDT | F3 | Somerset, PA | 13.0 | 880 | 1 | 15 | $4.0 million |
| May 31 | 8:50 PM EDT | F0 | Wayne, PA | 0.5 | 30 | $50,000 | ||
| May 31 | 9:00 PM EDT | F3 | Berks, PA | 8.3 | 120 | 7 | $1.4 million | |
| May 31 | 9:02 PM EDT | F0 | Lycoming, PA | 0.5 | 50 | |||
| May 31 | 9:15 PM EDT | F0 | Lycoming, PA | 0.2 | 40 | |||
| May 31 | 9:15 PM EDT | F1 | Wyoming, PA | 0.5 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| May 31 | 9:30 PM EDT | F1 | Northwest Hills Planning Region, CT | 0.3 | 30 | $4,000 | ||
| May 31 | 8:35 PM CDT | F2 | Adair, KY | 1.0 | 100 | $300,000 | ||
| May 31 | 9:50 PM EDT | F0 | Pike, PA | 0.3 | 30 | $40,000 | ||
| May 31 | 10:48 PM EDT | F1 | Bell, KY | 1.5 | 300 | $200,000 | ||
| May 31 | 12:52 AM EDT | F1 | Chester, PA | 3.0 | 100 | $300,000 | ||
| May 31 | 1:20 AM EDT | F2 | Philadelphia, PA | 5.6 | 200 | $1.8 million |
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.