Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1998

F1 tornado, New Waverly, Texas, January 21, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Walker County on January 21, 1998, touching down at 5:49 PM CST and reaching 200 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $200,000 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
January 21, 1998
Touchdown
5:49 PM CST (23:49 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
200 yards (183 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$200,000
County
Walker County
Touchdown point
30.530, -95.670
Lift-off point
30.530, -95.620
Record number
707

What the Weather Service recorded

Tornado continued from the Montgomery/Walker County line moving to the east-northeast through Sam Houston National Forest. This tornado snapped numerous trees along its path, some 18 inches in diameter. Timber loss was estimated at $200,000. Most significant number of trees down along FR 208 & 208A. In addition to downed trees, numerous camping shelters were destroyed in Huntsville State Park causing that area of the forest to be closed to campers for weeks.

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

The warnings

24 minutes of warning. NWS HGX issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:25 UTC, 24 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:25 UTC00:30 UTCTornado WarningHGX
00:21 UTC01:10 UTCTornado WarningHGX

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 19:30 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

11.8 hours before the tornado, 239 km from the path. January 21, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1998-01-21Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 58 joules per kilogram, CIN -81, lifted condensation level 502 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 1998-01-21The 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 287 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
58 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-81 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
502 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
287 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
313 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
4.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

0.2 hours after it, 239 km from the path. January 22, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1998-01-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1567 joules per kilogram, CIN -9, lifted condensation level 528 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 00:00Z on 1998-01-22The 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 120 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 46 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
1567 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-9 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1451 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
528 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
46 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
120 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
168 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.3
Supercell composite
6.4
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Huntsville Municipal Airport (UTS), 25 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
21:53 UTC696460° 3 kt1007.5
22:53 UTC686490° 6 kt1007.1
23:53 UTC666570° 3 kt1007.5+RA BR
00:53 UTC6363170° 10 kt1008.1+RA BR

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

The radar

The Houston radar (KHGX), 130 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:49 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 January 21, 1998

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 212:56 PM CSTF0Lee, TX0.2100
January 213:07 PM CSTF0Lee, TX0.250
January 213:09 PM CSTF1Lee, TX1.0400$80,000
January 213:12 PM CSTF0Lee, TX0.250
January 213:40 PM CSTF0Jackson, TX0.130
January 214:35 PM CSTF0Leon, TX0.130
January 214:44 PM CSTF0Brazos, TX3.050$40,000
January 215:25 PM CSTF0Madison, TX1.050$250,000
January 215:28 PM CSTF1Leon, TX0.5401$50,000
January 215:29 PM CSTF0Grimes, TX0.580$10,000
January 215:34 PM CSTF0Montgomery, TX6.580$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.