Tornado, Phelps
- When
- June 1, 5:20 PM CST to 5:30 PM CST
- Where
- Phelps County, St James to 4 mi E of St James
- Rating
- F3
- Path length
- 7 mi
- Path width
- 300 yd
- Property damage
- $3.5 million
- Reported by
- NWS STORM SURVEY
- Coordinates
- 38.000, -91.680
Tornado in Missouri, June 1, 1999
A tornado with an intermittent damage path, damaged 200 homes, businesses, and other buildings in the southern portion of St. James.
Where it happened
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
- Tornadoes
- Tropical storms and surge
- Floods
- Wind
- Hail
- Winter weather
- Heat and drought
- Cold
- Fire, smoke and dust
- Marine and coastal
- Other
The toll
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Property damage
- $3.5 million
- Crop damage
- None recorded
- Events
- 1
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
What happened
The episode as NWS SGF wrote it up.
A tornado with an intermittent damage path, damaged 200 homes, businesses, and other buildings in the southern portion of St. James. Of these, 33 homes were destroyed along with the St. James Golf Course clubhouse and two Missouri Department of Transportation (MODOT) buildings. Initially, the tornado touched down just west of the intersection of Hwy BB and County Road (CR) 3370 and produced F1 damage, damaging roofs and destroying a barn. The path width was about 200 yards.The tornado then moved east, south of the downtown St. James area and intensified. F2-F3 damage occurred with a 200-300 yard damage path. Several homes and farm buildings were severely damaged or destroyed. F3 damage occurred at the golf course and at the MODOT site south-southeast of town with a damage path width of 300 yards. The tornado then weakened rapidly, producing F1 damage with a damage path width of 150 yards about 3 miles southeast of downtown.
The radar
The St Louis radar (KLSX), 117 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 23:18 UTC.
Event by event
1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.
What these are
- Tornado
- A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
The same day elsewhere
- Tornadoes and Hail in Oklahoma, June 1, 1999
- Tornado in Illinois, June 1, 1999
- Tornadoes and Hail in Illinois, June 1, 1999
- Tornadoes in Missouri, June 1, 1999
- Flash Flooding in Illinois, June 1 to 2, 1999
- Tornadoes in Illinois, June 1, 1999
- Tornado in Illinois, June 1, 1999
- Flooding and Hail in Kansas, June 1 to 28, 1999
- Tornadoes and Flash Flooding in Texas, June 1 to 25, 1999
- Hail and Damaging Winds in Kansas, June 1, 1999
- Tornado and Hail in Illinois, June 1, 1999
- Lightning Strikes in Florida, June 1 to 4, 1999
More
Every storm in Missouri in 1999Every state in 1999This day in weather historyThe tornado archive for Missouri, 1999Warnings in Missouri, June 1999
Sources
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5706685.