Tornadoes · United States · Tennessee · 1998

F1 tornado, Oglesby, Tennessee, June 30, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 1.2 miles across Davidson County on June 30, 1998, touching down at 3:09 AM CDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $20,000 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
June 30, 1998
Touchdown
3:09 AM CDT (08:09 UTC)
Path length
1.2 miles (1.9 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$20,000
County
Davidson County
Touchdown point
36.050, -86.750
Lift-off point
36.050, -86.730
Record number
503

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado hit south Nashville, in the Oglesby section of town. The tornado began on Hill Road and ended near the intersection of Edmonson Pk and Old Hickory Boulevard. The tornado damaged 2 roofs and snapped trees at the Brentwood Downs Apartments. A lady at the apartment complex saw the tornado.

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.

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 11:01 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

8.2 hours before the tornado, 15 km from the path. June 30, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1998-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2226 joules per kilogram, CIN -2, lifted condensation level 1384 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1998-06-30The 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 33 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 knots.193958Sfc1 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
2226 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-2 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3164 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1384 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
33 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
98 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.3
Supercell composite
3.3
0-3 km lapse rate
7.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

3.8 hours after it, 15 km from the path. June 30, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1998-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 14 joules per kilogram, CIN -443, lifted condensation level 1330 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1998-06-30The 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 35 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 40 knots.193958Sfc1 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
14 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-443 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1330 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
23 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
75 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Nashville Metro (BNA), 9 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
06:53 UTC8268290° 3 kt1013.5
07:38 UTC78.871.650° 6 kt1013.9VCTS
07:53 UTC777170° 7 kt1013.2-TSRA
08:15 UTC73.471.6340° 18 kt231014.9+TSRA BR
08:20 UTC71.669.8350° 23 kt331015.9+TSRA BR
08:27 UTC69.868360° 18 kt331016.3+TSRA BR
08:42 UTC69.866.2360° 13 kt211016.3TSRA BR
08:53 UTC6967360° 10 kt1016.6TSRA BR
09:12 UTC69.866.210° 10 kt1015.9-RA BR
09:53 UTC6967100° 12 kt1011.2-RA

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

The radar

The Nashville radar (KOHX), 27 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:10 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 TennesseeEvery tornado in Tennessee since 1950Warnings in force in Tennessee nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 30, 1998

12 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 302:05 AM EDTF0Charlotte, FL0.130
June 308:15 AM EDTF1Suffolk, NY0.3300
June 308:20 AM EDTF0Suffolk, NY0.1100
June 3010:45 AM EDTF0Tuscola, MI0.130$10,000
June 302:15 PM EDTF0Erie, OH0.130
June 304:05 PM EDTF0Cambria, PA5.050
June 303:15 PM CDTF0Meeker, MN0.530
June 304:25 PM EDTF1Somerset, PA0.270
June 308:30 PM EDTF1Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, CT0.130
June 308:30 PM EDTF1Southeastern Connecticut Planning Region, CT0.130
June 308:40 PM EDTF1Suffolk, NY0.380
June 308:45 PM EDTF0Lower Connecticut River Valley Planning Region, CT0.130

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.