Alert archive / Arkansas / Tornado Warnings in 1999

Tornado Warning 10, NWS Shreveport, LA

January 21, 1999Miller County, Arkansas

NWS Shreveport, LA issued this tornado warning at Jan 21, 1999, 3:39 PM CST for Miller County, Arkansas. It was in force for 31 min. 2 reports 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 21, 1999, 3:39 PM CST (21:39 UTC)
Expired: Jan 21, 1999, 4:10 PM CST
In force: 31 min
Issued by: NWS Shreveport, LA
Area: Whole counties

County Miller County, AR

The radar

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 96 km from the middle of the area, began a volume at 21:39 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 21, 3:45 PM CST	Tornado F0	Genoa, AR	Tornado track was through unpopulated wooded and farmland area.
Jan 21, 4:00 PM CST	Hail 0.75	Texarkana, AR	Reported along the 8 mile marker of Highway 82.

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 21, 2:30 PM CST	Tornado Watch	SPC	7 hr

The nearest sounding before it

Shreveport, LA (KSHV), launched 12:00Z, 9.7 hours before the alert went out and 93 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.

Skew-T log-p

Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed.

Hodograph

The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km.

Mixed-layer CAPE: 941 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN: -169 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL: 740 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear: 56 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity: 289 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity: 350 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter: 0.3
Supercell composite: 1.5

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The text

As transmitted, in the capitals the NWS used until 2016.

999 
WFUS1 KSHV 212141 RRA
TORSHV
ARC091-212210-

BULLETIN - EAS ACTIVATION REQUESTED
TORNADO WARNING
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
339 PM CST THU JAN 21 1999

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN SHREVEPORT HAS ISSUED A

* TORNADO WARNING FOR...
  MILLER COUNTY IN SOUTHWESTERN ARKANSAS

* UNTIL 410 PM CST

* AT 338 PM CST... THE SHREVEPORT NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER
  RADAR INDICATED A DEVELOPING TORNADO 5 MILES SOUTHWEST OF GENOA.
  THE THUNDERSTORM CONTAINING THIS TORNADO WAS MOVING NORTHEAST AT
  35 MPH.


* THE TORNADO IS EXPECTED TO BE NEAR...
  GENOA AT 345 PM.

  A TORNADO WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR THE WARNED AREA.

REMEMBER...A TORNADO WATCH MEANS THAT TORNADOES ARE POSSIBLE
IN AND NEAR THE WATCH AREA. LARGE HAIL...DAMAGING WINDS...AND
TORRENTIAL RAINFALL MAY ALSO OCCUR. BE READY TO SEEK A PLACE OF
SAFETY IF A WARNING IS ISSUED FOR YOUR AREA.

THIS THUNDERSTORM CAN PRODUCE A TORNADO THAT IS OBSCURED BY
RAIN AND DIFFICULT TO SEE. GO TO AN INTERIOR ROOM ON THE LOWEST
FLOOR OF YOUR HOME OR BUSINESS.

1/6

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 Shreveport, LA wrote its last area forecast discussion before this tornado warning went out at Jan 21, 1:20 PM CST, 2 hours 19 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Jan 21, 1:20 PM CST, 2 hours 19 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
120 AM CST THU JAN 21 1999

EXPECT TSTM INITIATION TO BEGIN LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND EVENING
AS JET STREAK APPROACHES AND SHORT WAVE TROF CONTINUES TO DEEPEN.
FEEL THAT CONVECTION WILL BECOME A RATHER NASTY LN OF SVR TSTMS
AND MOV RAPIDLY E INTO MS DURING LATE TONIGHT.

IN THE LONGER TERM...ETA IS THE MORE NRLY OF THE MODELS...HOWEVER...
IN ALL CASES...IT APPEARS THAT SRN FA SHOULD BE UNDER THE DRY SLOT OF
THE PROGGED COMMA HEAD WHILE FAR NRN FA WILL BE IN WRAP AROUND PCPN OF
COMMA HEAD BY FRIDAY NIGHT.  AS NVA AND CAA MOVE IN DURING SATURDAY...
EXPECT CLRG SKIES.  HAVE INCREASED POPS FOR TONIGHT AND EARLY FRIDAY
WITH DECREASED POPS FOR FRIDAY NIGHT WITH SUCH A POWERFUL SYSTEM.

SHV 56/61/40/57 6410  MLU 62/64/45/56 7510  08

In the hours before

Special weather statement, Jan 21, 10:00 AM CST, 5 hours 39 minutes before

ARZ050-051-059>061-070>073-LAZ001>006-010>014-017>022-211900-

SPECIAL WEATHER STATEMENT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
1000 AM CST THU JAN 21 1999

...HIGH RISK AREA OF SEVERE WEATHER EXPANDED TO INCLUDE ALL OF
NORTHERN LOUISIANA AND SOUTHWESTERN ARKANSAS...

WEATHER PATTERNS WILL BE DEVELOPING THROUGH TODAY AND TONIGHT THAT
WILL SET UP A HIGH RISK OF A SIGNIFICANT OUTBREAK OF SEVERE WEATHER
OVER PORTIONS OF THE LOWER MISSISSIPPI VALLEY.  IT APPEARS THAT THE
OUTBREAK MAY OCCUR TONIGHT ACROSS THE HIGH RISK AREA.

THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED TO DEVELOP OVER TEXAS THIS AFTERNOON AND
MOVE EASTWARD INTO ARKANSAS AND LOUISIANA TONIGHT WHERE THE
ATMOSPHERE IS BECOMING INCREASINGLY UNSTABLE.  THIS WILL CAUSE THE
THUNDERSTORMS TO INTENSITY AS THEY MOVE THROUGH LOUISIANA AND
ARKANSAS...WITH SOME OF THEM PRODUCING EXTREMELY HIGH WINDS...LARGE
HAIL AND POSSIBLE TORNADOES.

RESIDENTS IN LOUISIANA AND ARKANSAS WILL WANT TO MONITOR THE PROGRESS
OF THIS WEATHER SYSTEM THROUGH TODAY AND TONIGHT.  IT IS SUGGESTED
THAT EVERYONE MENTALLY REVIEW THEIR SEVERE WEATHER SAFETY RULES AND
KEEP IN CLOSE TOUCH WITH NOAA WEATHER RADIO AND COMMERCIAL TV AND
RADIO FOR LATER STATEMENTS...WATCHES OR WARNINGS.

01

Local storm report, Jan 21, 2:47 PM CST, 52 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
247 PM CST THU JAN 21 1999

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....PARISH/COUNTY LOCATION....

0220 PM    NASHVILLE                 AR   1 INCH HAIL
01/21/99   HOWARD                         JUST WEST OF NASHVILLE.
                                          FROM SHERIFF OFFICE.

0226 PM    NASHVILLE                 AR   1.5 INCH HAIL
01/21/99   HOWARD                         FROM HAM RADIO SPOTTERS.

VIII.

Local storm report, Jan 21, 3:35 PM CST, 4 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT...CORRECTED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE SHREVEPORT LA
335 PM CST THU JAN 21 1999

TIME(CST)  .....CITY LOCATION..... STATE  ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....PARISH/COUNTY LOCATION....

0325 PM    QUEEN CITY                TX   1 INCH HAIL
01/21/99   CASS                           DIME TO NICKEL SIZE FROM
                                          PUBLIC REPORT RELAYED FROM
                                          SO AND VIA TV
                                          METEOROLOGIST.

The office that day

Everything else NWS Shreveport, LA issued on the same UTC day.

Issued	Product	Office	Counties	Lasted
Jan 21, 2:19 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Howard	46 min
Jan 21, 2:44 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Lafayette	46 min
Jan 21, 3:09 PM CST	Tornado Warning	SHV	Lafayette	46 min
Jan 21, 3:14 PM CST	Tornado Warning	SHV	Columbia	46 min
Jan 21, 3:30 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Nevada	45 min
Jan 21, 4:06 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Hempstead	49 min
Jan 21, 4:33 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Nevada	52 min
Jan 21, 4:53 PM CST	Severe Thunderstorm Warning	SHV	Hempstead	47 min

Nearby

Tornado Warnings in Arkansas, 1999 Every tornado warning in 1999 Tornadoes 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.