Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1998
F1 tornado, Baytown, Texas, February 10, 1998
This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Harris County on February 10, 1998, touching down at 12:49 PM CST and reaching 440 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 4, and did $3.0 million 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.
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 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- February 10, 1998
- Touchdown
- 12:49 PM CST (18:49 UTC)
- Path length
- 3.0 miles (4.8 km)
- Path width
- 440 yards (402 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 4
- Property damage
- $3.0 million
- County
- Harris County
- Touchdown point
- 29.720, -95.050
- Lift-off point
- 29.720, -95.050
- Record number
- 734
What the Weather Service recorded
Tornado touched down on the Exxon refinery west of Decker Rd., then travelled NE for 3 miles. Damage to the Exxon cooling tower, major damage to the Days Inn on Decker Rd, numerous apartment complexes and residences in the Allen Brook Subdivision. This was one of three tornadoes that touched down in Baytown on this day, and was the most destructive. Fifty-six apartments destroyed, over 150 residences sustained damage varying from minor to major. Four minor injuries from flying glass, etc.
Second tornado touchdown just east of where the first one lifted. This tornado travelled NE for 4 miles before lifting at HWY 146 & Staples Rd. Structural damage to homes in Chapparal Village.
Third tornado touchdown 1.5 miles south of HWY 146 in Baytown. Billboards snapped, and damage to mobile homes at a local dealership.
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 Moderate 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.
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z
6.8 hours before the tornado, 184 km from the path. February 10, 1998.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 380 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -57 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 421 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 709 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 47 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 14 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 125 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 182 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.2
- Supercell composite
- 1.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z
5.2 hours after it, 184 km from the path. February 11, 1998.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -81747 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 601 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 65 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 22 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -177 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -254 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 4.8 K/km
The surface observations
Houston/Ellington (EFD), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16:55 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 110° 16 kt | 1007.5 | -RA | |
| 17:50 UTC | 64.4 | 62.6 | 110° 23 kt | 29 | 1004.4 | |
| 18:55 UTC | 59 | 59 | 290° 27 kt | 48 | 1005.8 | |
| 19:30 UTC | 57.2 | 57.2 | 330° 11 kt | 1005.8 | ||
| 19:55 UTC | 57.2 | 57.2 | 330° 13 kt | 1005.4 |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Houston radar (KHGX), 28 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 18:50 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 TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of February 10, 1998
10 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| February 10 | 8:50 AM CST | F0 | Wilson, TX | 0.1 | 100 | |||
| February 10 | 9:25 AM CST | F0 | Guadalupe, TX | 0.2 | 200 | |||
| February 10 | 10:19 AM CST | F0 | Leon, TX | 0.5 | 40 | $40,000 | ||
| February 10 | 12:50 PM CST | F1 | Galveston, TX | 1.7 | 50 | 4 | $100,000 | |
| February 10 | 12:54 PM CST | F1 | Harris, TX | 4.0 | 440 | $750,000 | ||
| February 10 | 12:57 PM CST | F1 | Harris, TX | 0.5 | 100 | $250,000 | ||
| February 10 | 1:20 PM CST | F1 | Liberty, TX | 0.5 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| February 10 | 2:27 PM CST | F1 | Jasper, TX | 5.0 | 30 | $1.0 million | ||
| February 10 | 5:45 PM CST | F1 | Chicot, AR | 2.0 | 50 | $80,000 | ||
| February 10 | 7:05 PM CST | F0 | Leflore, MS | 1.5 | 50 | $3,000 |
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.