F3 tornado, Beebe to Mc Rae, Arkansas, January 21, 1999

1. F040 to 72 mph

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. F173 to 112 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. F2113 to 157 mph

   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.

4. F3158 to 206 mphthis tornado

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. F4207 to 260 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. 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.

7. 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.

Rating

F3

Date

January 21, 1999

Touchdown

7:25 PM CST (01:25 UTC)

Path length

8.0 miles (12.9 km)

Path width

1,000 yards (914 m)

Deaths

2

Injuries

29

County

White County

Touchdown point

35.050, -91.920

Lift-off point

35.130, -91.800

Record number

113

A strong tornado was spawned in southern White County just southwest of Beebe. The tornado moved through Beebe causing extensive damage to homes and businesses. Of all the tornadoes in this particular outbreak, the tornado at Beebe was the strongest. The tornado heavily damaged the new Beebe Junior High School off of Center Street and destroyed a gym behind the school. The Beebe Fire Department and a church also sustained damage. Two pickup trucks were found upside down on Hickory Street, with many old houses damaged or destroyed on Main Steet. Trees were downed throughout the area. Also, a girls high school basketball game was cancelled at halftime...and a boys game scheduled for later was called off with word of an approaching tornado. The tornado arrived a half hour later and heavily damaged the high school gym. Fortunately, the building was empty...everyone had gone home. In Beebe, the tornado killed two people...an elderly woman and an infant. The tornado tracked northeast out of Beebe toward McRae, with trees down and building debris noted along Highway 367 between Beebe and McRae. In McRae, widespread damage was found. The old fire station lost a wall and the new fire station across the railroad tracks (along Highway 367) was destroyed. Several mobile homes were overturned next to the new fire station and the post office was heavily damaged. A train signal was also destroyed. All natural gas in town was shut off due to leaks. The tornado finally dissipated about a mile northeast of McRae.

The deaths

2 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

31 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:54 UTC, 31 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:55 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

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 Afb (LRF), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The Little Rock radar (KLZK), 46 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 01:25 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in ArkansasEvery tornado in Arkansas since 1950Warnings in force in Arkansas nowThe forecast where you are

85 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

All 86 of them

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.