F1 tornado, Ridgeway to Martinsburg, West Virginia, June 16, 1998

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.

Rating

F1

Date

June 16, 1998

Touchdown

6:08 PM EDT (22:08 UTC)

Path length

1.0 miles (1.6 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$100,000

County

Berkeley County

Touchdown point

39.450, -77.880

Lift-off point

39.480, -77.920

Record number

1220

The approach of a cold front combined with impressive jet stream energy aloft acted on an unstable low-level atmosphere to produce a severe weather episode across eastern West Virginia for the second time in as many days. The combustible situation produced a mesoscale low pressure system which focused the most substantial severe weather in north-central Maryland and the eastern West Virginia panhandle. The episode featured two small tornadoes and one wind damage event.The main event was a short-lived tornado which tracked through the small community of Swan Pond just east of Martinsburg. In Swan Pond Orchard, the tornado ripped a garage off the back of a home and knocked down eight miniature apple trees. The twister moved through a heavily wooded area, knocking down numerous trees before tracking across an open field where it tore the roof off a barn. It also flipped a trailer, moved a hay wagon, blew out doors to a hangar, and damaged a cinder block outbuilding.This was the second tornado associated with the parent thunderstorm. The first, perhaps a continuation of one that had struck in extreme northern Frederick Co Virginia moments earlier, cut a brief path across extreme southern Berkeley Co near Ridgeway. Several trees were blown down, including one onto a mobile home and two more onto nearby homes. Interestingly, this same storm would spawn three more tornadoes in Washington Co, Maryland, a bit later.In southeastern Jefferson Co, trees were knocked down along federal highway 340 near Harpers Ferry and along state route 9 just east of the Shenandoah River.

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

0 minutes of warning. NWS LWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:08 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:40 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 11:03 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 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.

The Sterling radar (KLWX), 65 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:05 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1998 tornado in West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are

14 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.