Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1998

F0 tornado, Lowake, Texas, May 26, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Concho County on May 26, 1998, touching down at 9:30 PM CDT and reaching 30 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $1,000 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 mphthis tornado

    Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

  2. F173 to 112 mph

    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
F0
Date
May 26, 1998
Touchdown
9:30 PM CDT (02:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
30 yards (27 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$1,000
County
Concho County
Touchdown point
31.570, -100.080
Lift-off point
31.570, -100.080
Record number
948

What the Weather Service recorded

A supercell developed just north of San Angelo near Grape Creek and drifted very slowly eastward towards Veribest in northeast Tom Green County. This supercell spawned at least 2 tornadoes, including one that destroyed two mobile homes and damaged 15 homes near Veribest. Two people were injured in one of the mobile homes. Numerous farm buildings and other farm machinery were also heavily damaged. Hail of the size of baseballs and torrential rainfall accompanied this storm, causing extensive flooding across the Grape Creek and Quail Valley areas. Later in the evening, a line of severe storms swept through much of the Concho Valley and Heartland, bringing damaging winds and up to golf ball size hail.

Tornado destroyed an irrigation system

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

The warnings

75 minutes of warning. NWS SJT issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:15 UTC, 75 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:35 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
09:05 UTC09:55 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
01:15 UTC02:35 UTCTornado WarningSJT
02:05 UTC06:05 UTCFlash Flood WarningSJT
02:28 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningSJT
03:34 UTC05:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:59 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

2.5 hours before the tornado, 205 km from the path. May 27, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1998-05-27Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2356 joules per kilogram, CIN -27, lifted condensation level 1620 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1998-05-27The 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 7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 20 knots.1939Sfc1 km3 km6 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
2356 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-27 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2327 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1620 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
20 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
7 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
56 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
8.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

9.5 hours after it, 205 km from the path. May 27, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1998-05-27Temperature 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 -76096, lifted condensation level 2290 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1998-05-27The 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 -57 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 24 knots.1939Sfc1 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
-76096 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2290 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-57 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
30 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

San Angelo/Mathis (SJT), 46 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:56 UTC7860310° 4 kt1008.8HZ
01:56 UTC746420° 10 kt1010.2HZ
02:56 UTC736460° 9 kt1010.5HZ
03:56 UTC7162290° 30 kt371014.2
04:02 UTC64.460.8270° 33 kt461015.6
04:05 UTC62.662.6270° 37 kt491015.6
04:11 UTC60.860.8310° 16 kt491015.2
04:15 UTC60.860.8330° 14 kt391015.6
04:17 UTC60.860.8320° 12 kt1015.2
04:25 UTC62.662.6250° 7 kt1015.2

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

The radar

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 45 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 02:30 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 May 26, 1998

3 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 2612:30 PM MDTF0Natrona, WY2.5150
May 267:00 PM CDTF0Tom Green, TX0.130
May 268:30 PM CDTF1Tom Green, TX3.61,9402$1.3 million

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.