Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1999
F2 tornado, Oil Trough to Grubbs, Arkansas, January 17, 1999
From Oil Trough to Grubbs, this F2 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Jackson and Independence counties on January 17, 1999, touching down at 2:51 PM CST and reaching 250 yards wide. It killed nobody.
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.
F040 to 72 mph
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
F2113 to 157 mphthis tornado
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.
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.
F4207 to 260 mph
Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.
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.
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
- F2
- Date
- January 17, 1999
- Touchdown
- 2:51 PM CST (20:51 UTC)
- Path length
- 7.0 miles (11.3 km)
- Path width
- 250 yards (229 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- Counties
- Jackson and Independence counties
- Touchdown point
- 35.580, -91.430
- Lift-off point
- 35.620, -91.350
- Record number
- 120
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong tornado was spawned in southeast Independence County about 4 miles south-southeast of Oil Trough. As the tornado tracked northeast, it heavily damaged a home in the Macks community...with the roof removed. Several vehicles at the home were damaged by flying debris. Farther northeast, the tornado caused mostly tree and power line damage before it moved into Jackson County.
A strong tornado in southeast Independence County moved into western Jackson County. The tornado caused mostly tree and power line damage and blew down some highway signs before it dissipated about 2 miles west-southwest of Jacksonport.
A weak tornado was spawned in western Jackson County between Jacksonport and Diaz. The tornado caused mostly tree damage before it dissipated near Diaz.
A weak tornado was spawned in northern Jackson County about 2.7 miles south-southwest of Tuckerman. As the tornado tracked northeast, it damaged a couple of houses in a subdivision south of Tuckerman. Bass boats, lawn tractors and a number of yard items were blown around. At the Tuckerman Sewer Plant, a building was damaged and a fence was blown down. Another home just northeast of Tuckerman suffered considerable damage...with one person injured. Several trees were downed or snapped as well. The tornado finally dissipated about 3.5 miles southeast of Swifton.
A weak tornado was spawned in eastern Jackson County about 3 miles southwest of Grubbs. The tornado tracked northeast toward Grubbs and damaged about a dozen houses in and near town. A mobile home was overturned and destroyed, with debris from the mobile home damaging the house next door. A few barns were also damaged with trees and fences blown down. The tornado dissipated about 3 miles northeast of town.
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.
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 12:00Z
8.9 hours before the tornado, 156 km from the path. January 17, 1999.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 23 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -31 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 502 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 39 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 331 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 353 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 3.7 K/km
Little Rock, AR (KLZK), 00:00Z
3.1 hours after it, 156 km from the path. January 18, 1999.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -67414 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 43 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 2449 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 40 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 16 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 74 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 111 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 7.6 K/km
The surface observations
Batesville (Awos) (BVX), 27 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
The radar
The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 116 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:49 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 1999 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of January 17, 1999
21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 17 | 3:06 PM CST | F1 | Jackson, AR | 2.0 | 100 | |||
| January 17 | 3:08 PM CST | F0 | Jackson, AR | 0.2 | 50 | |||
| January 17 | 3:23 PM CST | F1 | Jackson, AR | 9.2 | 200 | 1 | ||
| January 17 | 3:28 PM CST | F0 | Jackson, AR | 0.5 | 0 | |||
| January 17 | 3:28 PM CST | F1 | Jackson, AR | 5.7 | 200 | |||
| January 17 | 3:38 PM CST | F0 | Jackson, AR | 0.2 | 0 | |||
| January 17 | 3:45 PM CST | F0 | Craighead, AR | 16.0 | 0 | $10,000 | ||
| January 17 | 4:30 PM CST | F0 | Greene, AR | 8.0 | 0 | $1,000 | ||
| January 17 | 4:35 PM CST | F1 | Greene, AR | 5.5 | 50 | $30,000 | ||
| January 17 | 4:45 PM CST | F0 | Poinsett, AR | 7.8 | 50 | $10,000 | ||
| January 17 | 4:45 PM CST | F2 | Craighead, AR | 11.0 | 0 | $150,000 | ||
| January 17 | 5:55 PM CST | F2 | Lauderdale, TN | 3.5 | 0 | 11 | $2.0 million | |
| January 17 | 6:09 PM CST | F3 | Crockett, TN | 10.0 | 0 | 4 | $1.6 million | |
| January 17 | 6:15 PM CST | F3 | Haywood, TN | 22.0 | 300 | 2 | $25 million | |
| January 17 | 6:25 PM CST | F4 | Jackson tornado, TN | 16.0 | 500 | 6 | 106 | $10 million |
| January 17 | 6:35 PM CST | F1 | Hardeman, TN | 12.0 | 350 | 1 | 4 | $410,000 |
| January 17 | 6:45 PM CST | F0 | Marshall, MS | 0.5 | 50 | 2 | $50,000 | |
| January 17 | 7:05 PM CST | F1 | Carroll, TN | 10.0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | $750,000 |
| January 17 | 7:06 PM CST | F1 | Stewart, TN | 0.1 | 100 | $30,000 | ||
| January 17 | 7:28 PM CST | F1 | Montgomery, TN | 0.6 | 250 | $20,000 | ||
| January 17 | 8:00 PM CST | F1 | Robertson, TN | 0.5 | 50 | $50,000 |
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.