Tornadoes · United States · Wisconsin · 1998

F0 tornado, Tomahawk, Wisconsin, March 29, 1998

This F0 tornado ran 4.5 miles across Lincoln County on March 29, 1998, touching down at 7:28 PM CST and reaching 80 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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
March 29, 1998
Touchdown
7:28 PM CST (01:28 UTC)
Path length
4.5 miles (7.2 km)
Path width
80 yards (73 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
Lincoln County
Touchdown point
45.470, -89.800
Lift-off point
45.520, -89.730
Record number
35

What the Weather Service recorded

A large thunderstorm produced wind gusts to 70 mph and a weak tornado across north-central Wisconsin during the evening of March 29. Hundreds of trees were blown down by straight line winds, causing minor roof damage to several structures. The weak tornado damaged several sheds, garages and a pole building west of Tomahawk (Lincoln co.). The storm also downed many power poles, disrupting power to thousands of customers.

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

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.

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 00:00Z

1.5 hours before the tornado, 173 km from the path. March 30, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 1998-03-30Temperature 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 -70428, lifted condensation level 602 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 00:00Z on 1998-03-30The 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 602 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 72 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
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-70428 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
602 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
72 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
602 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
864 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
9.9
0-3 km lapse rate
3.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Green Bay/Straub, WI (KGRB), 12:00Z

10.5 hours after it, 173 km from the path. March 30, 1998.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 1998-03-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 282 joules per kilogram, CIN -127, lifted condensation level 1005 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, Green Bay/Straub, WI at 12:00Z on 1998-03-30The 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 20 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 60 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
282 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-127 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1005 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
60 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
34 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
35 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.2
0-3 km lapse rate
5.0 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Rhinelander (RHI), 28 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
00:00 UTC

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

The radar

The Green Bay radar (KGRB), 171 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:26 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 WisconsinEvery tornado in Wisconsin since 1950Warnings in force in Wisconsin nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of March 29, 1998

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 293:23 PM CSTF2Nobles, MN0.180$400,000
March 293:25 PM CSTF0Nobles, MN0.150$10,000
March 293:28 PM CSTF0Nobles, MN0.150$50,000
March 293:35 PM CSTF2Nobles, MN0.180$200,000
March 293:45 PM CSTF1Nobles, MN0.150$100,000
March 293:50 PM CSTF4Murray, MN73.51,500119$75 million
March 293:55 PM CSTF1Murray, MN0.150$50,000
March 295:07 PM CSTF0Wabasha, MN1.550
March 295:15 PM CSTF0Buffalo, WI4.050
March 295:18 PM CSTF3Nicollet, MN12.02,2001$120 million
March 295:35 PM CSTF3Le Sueur, MN6.02,200
March 295:48 PM CSTF2Le Sueur, MN17.01,7602$20 million
March 296:09 PM CSTF1Rice, MN0.1200
March 296:16 PM CSTF2Rice, MN5.0440$20 million
March 296:25 PM CSTF2Dakota, MN3.0440
March 296:43 PM CSTF0Dakota, MN1.0100

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.