Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1998

F1 tornado, Buna, Texas, February 10, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 5.0 miles across Jasper County on February 10, 1998, touching down at 2:27 PM CST and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1.0 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.

  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
February 10, 1998
Touchdown
2:27 PM CST (20:27 UTC)
Path length
5.0 miles (8.0 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1.0 million
County
Jasper County
Touchdown point
30.430, -93.970
Lift-off point
30.430, -93.970
Record number
42

What the Weather Service recorded

The same storm that hit the Silsbee area moved across Buna, and produced an F1 tornado. Most of the damage was F0. Over 150 homes and businesses received some form of damage. Less than 25 of these buildings were considered severe damage. A local school recorded winds between 60 and 70 mph as the tornado passed within one mile of it.

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

The warnings

22 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 20:05 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 20:40 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
19:34 UTC20:35 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
20:05 UTC20:40 UTCTornado WarningLCH

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

8.5 hours before the tornado, 82 km from the path. February 10, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1998-02-10Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 380 joules per kilogram, CIN -57, lifted condensation level 709 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1998-02-10The 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 125 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 47 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

3.5 hours after it, 82 km from the path. February 11, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1998-02-11Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -81747, lifted condensation level 601 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°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, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1998-02-11The 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 -177 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 65 knots.1939587897Sfc1 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
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

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beaumont - Port Arthur (BPT), 53 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:53 UTC6864150° 26 kt401004.7BR
19:33 UTC66.264.4150° 31 kt401003
19:53 UTC6764150° 29 kt371002.7
20:32 UTC64.464.4270° 22 kt431004.7
20:36 UTC5959280° 18 kt391005.4
20:40 UTC57.257.2290° 13 kt261004.7
20:53 UTC5857280° 14 kt1004.7+TSRA BR
21:11 UTC57.255.4270° 7 kt1006.1
21:26 UTC57.255.4320° 9 kt1005.8
21:53 UTC5756320° 8 kt1005.8-TSRA
22:07 UTC57.257.2340° 7 kt1005.8

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

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 80 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:28 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 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.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
February 108:50 AM CSTF0Wilson, TX0.1100
February 109:25 AM CSTF0Guadalupe, TX0.2200
February 1010:19 AM CSTF0Leon, TX0.540$40,000
February 1012:49 PM CSTF1Harris, TX3.04404$3.0 million
February 1012:50 PM CSTF1Galveston, TX1.7504$100,000
February 1012:54 PM CSTF1Harris, TX4.0440$750,000
February 1012:57 PM CSTF1Harris, TX0.5100$250,000
February 101:20 PM CSTF1Liberty, TX0.550$50,000
February 105:45 PM CSTF1Chicot, AR2.050$80,000
February 107:05 PM CSTF0Leflore, MS1.550$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.