Alert archive / Louisiana / Tornado Warnings in 1999
Tornado Warning 26, NWS Lake Charles, LA
NWS Lake Charles, LA issued this tornado warning at Jan 29, 1999, 2:17 PM CST for Rapides Parish, Louisiana. It was in force for 63 min. 1 report came from inside the area while it was in force.
The area
The counties it named, with what was reported inside it.
The facts
- Issued
- Jan 29, 1999, 2:17 PM CST (20:17 UTC)
- Expired
- Jan 29, 1999, 3:20 PM CST
- In force
- 63 min
- Issued by
- NWS Lake Charles, LA
- Area
- Whole counties
County Rapides Parish, LA
The radar
The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 42 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 20:21 UTC, the scan nearest the moment this went out.
Open the radar archive at this moment
The archived warnings, watches and discussions in force at that minute are drawn over the scan, this one among them.
What was reported inside it
| Time | Report | Where | Remark |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 2:55 PM CST | Tornado F0 | Glenmora, LA |
NCEI Storm Data entries that began inside the alert's area while it was in force. Before 2003 the local storm report archive is thin, so this is the record of what happened rather than what was phoned in.
The watch it was issued in
The SPC watch in force over the same counties when this warning went out.
| Issued | Product | Office | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 1:15 PM CST | Tornado Watch | SPC | 6 hr |
The nearest sounding before it
Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), launched 12:00Z, 8.3 hours before the alert went out and 136 km from the middle of its area. This is the routine balloon launch nearest before it, the air the forecaster had in hand, not a measurement taken for the alert.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 708 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -20 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 648 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 33 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 153 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 229 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.6
- Supercell composite
- 3.9
The text
As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.
999 WFUS1 KLCH 292022 RRA TORLCH LAC079-292120- BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED TORNADO WARNING NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA 217 PM CST FRI JAN 29 1999 THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAKE CHARLES HAS ISSUED A * TORNADO WARNING FOR... RAPIDES PARISH IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA * UNTIL 320 PM CST * AT 215 PM CST... NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A TORNADO 39 MILES SOUTHWEST OF ALEXANDRIA OR 13 MILES SOUTHWEST OF BLANCHE MOVING NORTHEAST AT 10 MPH. *THE TORNADIC THUNDERSTORM WILL MOVE ACROSS SOUTHERN RAPIDES PARISH. THIS IS A DANGEROUS STORM SITUATION. ACT QUICKLY. GO TO A SMALL INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST FLOOR. AVOID WINDOWS AND DOORS. ABANDON CARS AND MOBILE HOMES FOR A STURDIER BUILDING OR GET INTO A DITCH OR CULVERT.
What forecasters said that day
The local office's own words before this tornado warning went out, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Lake Charles, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at Jan 29, 1:51 PM CST, 26 minutes earlier.
Area forecast discussion, Jan 29, 1:51 PM CST, 26 minutes before
SOUTHWEST...CENTRAL LOUISIANA AND SOUTHEAST TEXAS FORECAST DISCUSSION NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA 151 PM CST FRI JAN 29 1999 TOR WATCH 39 HAS BEEN ISSUED FOR A LARGE PORTION LCH FA. STRONG/SEVERE CELLS STARTING TO DEVELOP OVER NORTHERN SECTION OF FA NEAR SFC BOUNDARY. WIND SHEAR AND INSTABILITIES ARE CONDUCIVE FOR ROTATING CELLS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING ISOLATED TORNADOES. TSRA DEVELOPMENT WILL CONTINUE THROUGH THE AFTERNOON HOURS INTO THE EVENING. 18Z SFC ANALYSIS INDICATES LOW OVER SOUTH TEXAS WITH TROF AXIS EXTENDING INTO CENTRAL LOUISIANA. SFC LOW WILL MOVE NE ALONG BOUNDARY OVER EAST-CENTRAL TEXAS TONIGHT. STRONG 100 KT JET MAX AT 300 MB WILL ROTATE AROUND BASE OF UPPER LOW AND ENHANCE CONVECTION NEAR AND SOUTH OF BOUNDARY ACROSS AREA. CURRENT FFA CONFIGURATION LOOKS GOOD. BELIEVE CELLS WILL DEVELOP NEAR THE COAST AND INTENSIFY AS THEY MOVE NORTH. THEREFORE... SIGNIFICANT PRECIP SHOULD REMAIN OVER NORTHERN ZONES WHERE CURRENT WATCH IS LOCATED. BOTH MODELS INDICATE SIGNIFICANT DRYING BY SAT 12Z. PRECIP SHOULD BEGIN TO END FROM THE WEST AT THIS TIME. WILL STILL HOLD ON TO POPS...MAINLY FOR LOUISIANA ZONES SATURDAY. 12 LCH EB 065/067 048/062 8310 LFT EB 066/070 051/060 7720 AEX EB 064/069 050/056 +320 BPT EB 062/067 047/060 8210
In the hours before
Special weather statement, Jan 29, 9:54 AM CST, 4 hours 23 minutes before
LAZ027>033-041>045-051>055-TXZ180>182-201-215-216-292130- SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LAKE CHARLES LA 954 AM CST FRI JAN 29 1999 ...FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND CENTRAL LOUISIANA THROUGH TONIGHT... ...MODERATE RISK OF SEVERE WEATHER FOR PORTIONS OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS THROUGH TONIGHT... A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT THROUGH TONIGHT FOR THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES IN SOUTHEAST: TYLER...JASPER...HARDIN AND NEWTON. IN CENTRAL LOUISIANA THE FLASH WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE FOLLOWING PARISHES: BEAUREGARD...VERNON...RAPIDES...AVOYELLES..ALLEN AND EVANGELINE. FLASH FLOODING WILL BE BE POSSIBLE THROUGH TONIGHT IN THE FLASH FLOOD WATCH AREA AS A SLOW MOVING UPPER LEVEL DISTURBANCE APPROACHES THE AREA FROM THE WEST. RAINFALL AMOUNTS OF 3 TO 5 INCHES ARE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE WATCH AREA THROUGH TONIGHT. THIS WILL RESULT IN FLOODING OF LOW LYING AREAS...SECONDARY ROADS AND SMALL STREAMS. SEVERE WEATHER WILL ALSO BE POSSIBLE ACROSS THE AREA LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND INTO TONIGHT AS CONDITIONS BECOME FAVORABLE FOR THUNDERSTORMS THAT WILL BE CAPABLE OF PRODUCING WIND GUSTS IN EXCESS OF 55 MPH...LARGE HAIL AND ISOLATED TORNADOES. THE MAIN THREAT FOR SEVERE WEATHER WILL BE ACROSS SOUTHEAST TEXAS AND SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA. ACTIVATION OF SKYWARN STORM SPOTTERS MAY BE REQUIRED. STAY TUNED TO NOAA WEATHER RADIO...COMMERCIAL TELEVISION OR RADIO FOR LATER STATEMENTS CONCERNING THIS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS SEVERE WEATHER AND FLASH FLOOD THREAT. FOR ADDITIONAL WEATHER INFORMATION VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT: WWW.SRH.NOAA.GOV/LCH.
The office that day
Everything else NWS Lake Charles, LA issued on the same UTC day.
| Issued | Product | Office | Counties | Lasted |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 29, 12:48 PM CST | Tornado Warning | LCH | Beauregard | 62 min |
| Jan 29, 2:08 PM CST | Tornado Warning | LCH | Allen | 47 min |
| Jan 29, 4:06 PM CST | Flash Flood Warning | LCH | Rapides, Vernon | 119 min |
| Jan 29, 5:49 PM CST | Tornado Warning | LCH | Rapides | 61 min |
Nearby
Tornado Warnings in Louisiana, 1999Every tornado warning in 1999Tornadoes in 1999
Sources
The product and its follow-ups from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service and Storm Prediction Center text; verification from NCEI's Storm Data; the sounding from the Mesonet's radiosonde archive; radar from the NEXRAD Level II archive.