Tornadoes · United States · West Virginia · 1998
F1 tornado, Sardis to Hepzibah, West Virginia, May 24, 1998
From Sardis to Hepzibah, this F1 tornado ran 4.0 miles across Harrison County on May 24, 1998, touching down at 7:30 PM EDT and reaching 150 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 1, and did $600,000 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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- May 24, 1998
- Touchdown
- 7:30 PM EDT (23:30 UTC)
- Path length
- 4.0 miles (6.4 km)
- Path width
- 150 yards (137 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 1
- Property damage
- $600,000
- County
- Harrison County
- Touchdown point
- 39.330, -80.420
- Lift-off point
- 39.330, -80.350
- Record number
- 232
What the Weather Service recorded
Widespread thunderstorms contained hail and some strong wind gusts. Cabell County residents were hit by 2 or 3 separate thunderstorms. An estimated 400 insurance claims were filed from the Huntington vicinity from these storms. The damage was mostly dented vehicles from the large hail. A few homes had minor damage.
The path was through rural countryside, including Lamberts Run. The path missed Clarksburg by just 2 miles. One house was destroyed, 2 homes and 1 mobile home had major damage. Two garages were destroyed. Other damage was to vehicles and campers. Numerous trees were blown over or snapped. Peak wind gusts were estimated at 100 to 110 mph by a National Weather Service survey team. One person was injured by flying glass.
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.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23:21 UTC | 00:00 UTC | Severe Thunderstorm Warning | RLX |
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 11:04 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.
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 12:00Z
11.5 hours before the tornado, 123 km from the path. May 24, 1998.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -71594 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1932 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 46 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 5 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 46 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 115 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.0 K/km
Pittsburgh, PA (KPIT), 00:00Z
0.5 hours after it, 123 km from the path. May 25, 1998.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 69 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -185 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 68 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1081 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 13 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 160 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 277 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.2
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 5.4 K/km
The surface observations
Clarksburg/Benedum (CKB), 14 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:53 UTC | 77 | 64.4 | 210° 7 kt | 1010.5 | ||
| 23:18 UTC | 75.2 | 64.4 | 180° 7 kt | 1009.8 | TS | |
| 23:51 UTC | 71.6 | 64.4 | 220° 9 kt | 1010.8 | -TSRA | |
| 00:47 UTC | 68 | 64.4 | 360° 5 kt | 1011.2 | -TSRA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Pittsburgh radar (KPBZ), 134 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:28 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 West VirginiaEvery tornado in West Virginia since 1950Warnings in force in West Virginia nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of May 24, 1998
27 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 24 | 1:32 PM MDT | F0 | Arapahoe, CO | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 1:46 PM MDT | F0 | Arapahoe, CO | 2.0 | 50 | $100,000 | ||
| May 24 | 4:15 PM EDT | F0 | Greenup, KY | 2.0 | 100 | $10,000 | ||
| May 24 | 6:45 PM CDT | F0 | Alfalfa, OK | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 6:50 PM CDT | F0 | Alfalfa, OK | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 5:55 PM MDT | F0 | Kiowa, CO | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 6:55 PM CDT | F1 | Alfalfa, OK | 5.0 | 100 | $3,000 | ||
| May 24 | 7:10 PM CDT | F0 | Harper, KS | 1.0 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| May 24 | 7:23 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 6:25 PM MDT | F0 | Sherman, KS | 0.2 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 7:25 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 2.5 | 50 | |||
| May 24 | 7:30 PM CDT | F0 | Sumner, KS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| May 24 | 6:35 PM MDT | F1 | Otero, CO | 1.0 | 50 | $50,000 | ||
| May 24 | 7:39 PM CDT | F0 | Cowley, KS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| May 24 | 7:39 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 7:40 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 7:46 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 1.0 | 250 | |||
| May 24 | 7:47 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 0.8 | 180 | |||
| May 24 | 8:01 PM CDT | F0 | Cowley, KS | 4.0 | 100 | |||
| May 24 | 8:20 PM CDT | F1 | Grant, OK | 2.0 | 80 | $10,000 | ||
| May 24 | 8:29 PM CDT | F0 | Grant, OK | 5.0 | 280 | $1,000 | ||
| May 24 | 8:35 PM CDT | F1 | Grant, OK | 1.0 | 200 | $10,000 | ||
| May 24 | 8:45 PM CDT | F0 | Cowley, KS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| May 24 | 8:50 PM CDT | F1 | Grant, OK | 2.0 | 400 | $10,000 | ||
| May 24 | 8:55 PM CDT | F0 | Kay, OK | 0.1 | 30 | |||
| May 24 | 9:10 PM CDT | F3 | Grant, OK | 5.3 | 1,300 | $2.0 million | ||
| May 24 | 10:30 PM CDT | F0 | Kay, OK | 0.1 | 30 |
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.