F0 tornado, Alma, Arkansas, March 5, 1999

1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

   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 mph

   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

F0

Date

March 5, 1999

Touchdown

4:36 PM CST (22:36 UTC)

Path length

0.5 miles (0.8 km)

Path width

30 yards (27 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1,000

County

Crawford County

Touchdown point

35.480, -94.270

Lift-off point

35.480, -94.270

Record number

162

Summary of events for March 5 1999:An approaching cold front and an upper level disturbance kicked off several severe thunderstorms in northwest Arkansas on March 5. The largest severe thunderstorm developed in Sequoyah County Oklahoma and then strengthened as it moved across Crawford and Franklin Counties along Interstate 40. Along the way, this storm produced giant hail as large as baseballs and softballs. This storm demonstrated strong rotation, producing a brief tornado touchdown just west of Alma and considerable damage from softball-sized hail in Alma. A second weaker, though severe, thunderstorm formed over southern Crawford County and followed the same path as the first storm. Finally, a severe thunderstorm moved out of northeast Oklahoma and clipped northwest Benton County, producing marginally severe hail.

Spotters reported a tornado touchdown 2 miles west of Alma. Spotters had followed a wall cloud and then a funnel cloud most of the way across Crawford County which then continued on into Franklin County after the tornado touchdown. The tornado blew down several trees.

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

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.

Fort Smith Municipal (FSM), 18 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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

11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.