Tornado on May 15, 1998 (Lone Tree, IA)
This page is under construction, which is to say, more will be added...
Last changed 5/02
Brian Jewett, Tim Shy and Adam Houston left the U.I. Atmospheric
Sciences department shortly before noon. Smoke from Mexican
fires combined with low level haze made for poor visibility on a day when
thunderstorms were forecast to move northeast at over 45 mph. We dropped south
from I-80 east of Iowa City and drove west on route 22 to see this tornado
west of Lone Tree, IA. The
National Weather Service
rated the tornado at F3 intensity - later, after it had moved northeast of us.
A plot of the approximate mesocyclone path and our car's route
is plotted here.
Software to play movies is
described here.
The quicktime
(QT) movies will be redone in the future with compression so
they aren't quite so huge...
This day's storm reports (as compiled by the
Storm Prediction Center) are
plotted here.
The tornado with this storm
injured over 30 people earlier in the day when it struck Washington, IA.
Fortunately, there were no fatalities.
The images and video are copyright © 1998 by
Brian F. Jewett,
Timothy Shy
(KM4KS) and
Adam L. Houston.
Please don't copy/redistribute any images
or video without permission.
Several friends and colleagues who weren't with
us on this day provided nowcasting support, which was
greatly appreciated. Our thanks to
Dr. Bruce Lee,
Ed Kieser of
WILL AM 580,
and
Scott Olthoff.
You may wish to see the
Davenport, Iowa National Weather Service page on this storm.
