Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1998

F1 tornado, Graham, Texas, October 2, 1998

This F1 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Young County on October 2, 1998, touching down at 5:16 PM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 3, and did $700,000 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
October 2, 1998
Touchdown
5:16 PM CDT (22:16 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
3
Property damage
$700,000
County
Young County
Touchdown point
33.150, -98.670
Lift-off point
33.080, -98.580
Record number
431

What the Weather Service recorded

An intermittent tornado tracked from northwest of Graham to southeast of Graham before ending on the Young-Jack county line just west of Bryson in Jack county. Sixty buildings were damaged, two mobile homes were destroyed and a radio tower was blown down.

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. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:47 UTC22:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD
22:17 UTC22:45 UTCTornado WarningFWD
22:43 UTC23:00 UTCTornado WarningFWD
23:01 UTC00:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFWD

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 10:49 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.

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 12:00Z

10.3 hours before the tornado, 128 km from the path. October 2, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 1998-10-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 116 joules per kilogram, CIN -131, lifted condensation level 1310 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, Fort Worth, TX at 12:00Z on 1998-10-02The 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 141 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 25 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
116 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-131 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3348 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1310 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
141 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
137 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Fort Worth, TX (KFWD), 00:00Z

1.7 hours after it, 128 km from the path. October 3, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 1998-10-03Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2565 joules per kilogram, CIN -12, lifted condensation level 908 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, Fort Worth, TX at 00:00Z on 1998-10-03The 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 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 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
2565 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-12 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4058 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
908 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
329 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
4.2
Supercell composite
26.4
0-3 km lapse rate
6.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Mineral Wells Municipal (MWL), 64 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
20:53 UTC93.269.8190° 10 kt251006.1
21:52 UTC91.468190° 13 kt1005.4
22:55 UTC91.468190° 12 kt1005.1
23:56 UTC87.868180° 13 kt1005.4

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

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 October 2, 1998

2 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
October 21:04 PM CDTF0Hunt, TX0.130
October 21:52 PM CDTF0Hopkins, TX0.230$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.