Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 1998

F1 tornado, Cleveland to Charleston, Tennessee, April 16, 1998

From Cleveland to Charleston, this F1 tornado ran 11.5 miles across Bradley County on April 16, 1998, touching down at 12:20 AM EDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed 1 person, and did $750,000 of property damage.

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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
April 16, 1998
Touchdown
12:20 AM EDT (04:20 UTC)
Path length
11.5 miles (18.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
1
Injuries
0
Property damage
$750,000
County
Bradley County
Touchdown point
35.170, -85.000
Lift-off point
35.270, -84.770
Record number
154

What the Weather Service recorded

The woman was killed when she was making her way into the basement in her home to take shelter from the approaching tornado. High winds caused the house to shift on its foundation, crushing her. Two homes were completely destroyed. Damage occurred to 33 homes, 10 barns, 2 mobile homes and a church.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

AgeSexWhereKind
35FPermanent HomeDirect

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

The forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:06 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 surface observations

Chattanooga/Lovell (CHA), 36 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of April 16, 1998

41 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 162:50 AM CDTF4Mississippi, AR5.0400212$350,000
April 163:25 AM CDTF1Mississippi, AR0.550$30,000
April 164:00 AM CDTF3Dyer, TN4.010023$250,000
April 164:20 AM CDTF2Crockett, TN5.01002$170,000
April 167:10 AM CDTF3Dickson, TN2.01,3005$500,000
April 168:15 AM CDTF0Pulaski, AR1.0100
April 168:16 AM CDTF0Lonoke, AR2.0100
April 1610:18 AM CDTF2Montgomery, TN1.1200$10,000
April 1610:20 AM CDTF3Robertson, TN7.2400$400,000
April 1611:20 AM CDTF0Poinsett, AR0.230$1,000
April 1612:05 PM CDTF0Humphreys, TN0.5100
April 1612:35 PM CDTF2Macon, TN3.0800$10,000
April 163:15 PM CDTF0Cheatham, TN1.0400
April 163:30 PM CDTF3Davidson, TN42.1880160$101 million
April 163:35 PM CDTF3Logan, KY48.010029$10 million
April 164:57 PM EDTF1Sanilac, MI7.5100$350,000
April 164:20 PM CDTF2Davidson, TN27.7880$3.0 million
April 164:33 PM CDTF0Chester, TN1.030$1,000
April 164:47 PM CDTF1Bolivar, MS4.0100$30,000
April 164:50 PM CDTF5Lawrence County tornado, TN69.41,760336$13 million
April 164:53 PM CDTF2Metcalfe, KY8.01001$5.0 million
April 165:15 PM CDTF2Davidson, TN1.0800$500,000
April 165:15 PM CDTF3Adair, KY20.0100$3.0 million
April 165:35 PM CDTF3Pickett, TN8.68804$10 million
April 165:35 PM CDTF0Leflore, MS2.050
April 166:05 PM CDTF2Wayne, KY18.6100$40,000
April 167:35 PM EDTF0Rockcastle, KY0.230$10,000
April 167:25 PM CDTF1Lamar, AL4.980$30,000
April 168:29 PM CDTF0Walker, AL1.850$10,000
April 168:36 PM CDTF0Walker, AL4.6100$30,000
April 168:46 PM CDTF1Walker, AL5.5110$150,000
April 168:57 PM CDTF0Cullman, AL4.080$30,000
April 169:04 PM CDTF1Cullman, AL5.890$60,000
April 169:15 PM CDTF1Cullman, AL3.7100$70,000
April 169:35 PM CDTF0Blount, AL2.180$10,000
April 169:46 PM CDTF1Etowah, AL8.4150$70,000
April 1610:01 PM CDTF1Etowah, AL3.1100$30,000
April 1611:20 PM EDTF1Walker, GA0.5502$100,000
April 1610:35 PM CDTF0Cherokee, AL1.380$30,000
April 1612:05 AM EDTF1Murray, GA0.510010$200,000
April 1611:43 PM CDTF0Cape Girardeau, MO0.640$10,000

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.