Tornadoes · United States · Arkansas · 1999
F2 tornado, Newhope to Glenwood, Arkansas, March 5, 1999
From Newhope to Glenwood, this F2 tornado ran 10.0 miles across Pike County on March 5, 1999, touching down at 6:56 PM CST and reaching 200 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
- March 5, 1999
- Touchdown
- 6:56 PM CST (00:56 UTC)
- Path length
- 10.0 miles (16.1 km)
- Path width
- 200 yards (183 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Pike County
- Touchdown point
- 34.200, -93.920
- Lift-off point
- 34.220, -93.750
- Record number
- 207
What the Weather Service recorded
A strong tornado was spawned in eastern Pike County. The tornado moved through mostly rural areas, so property damage was minimal. However, numerous trees were downed. The tornado was on the ground for around 10 miles before moving into western Clark County.
A strong tornado moved out of Howard County (Shreveport County Warning Area) into western Pike County. The tornado was weakening, but still heavily damaged a trailer and knocked down a few trees. The tornado tracked only half a mile into Pike County before dissipating.
A strong tornado was spawned south of a dissipating tornado in western Pike County. The former tornado tracked mostly through rural areas and caused little in the way of property damage. However, tree damage was extensive...especially just to the southeast of Newhope. The tornado tracked about 10 miles before dissipating.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The warnings
11 minutes of warning. NWS LZK issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:45 UTC, 11 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:50 UTC.
| Issued (UTC) | Expired | Product | Office |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00:45 UTC | 01:50 UTC | Tornado Warning | LZK |
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 forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:46 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 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.
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 00:00Z
0.9 hours before the tornado, 193 km from the path. March 6, 1999.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 859 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -20 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 1280 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 753 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 43 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 19 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- 158 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- 259 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 1.2
- Supercell composite
- 7.9
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 6.5 K/km
Shreveport, LA (KSHV), 12:00Z
11.1 hours after it, 193 km from the path. March 6, 1999.
- Mixed-layer CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer CIN
- -45618 J/kg
- Surface CAPE
- 0 J/kg
- Mixed-layer LCL
- 1701 m above ground
- 0-6 km bulk shear
- 49 kt
- 0-1 km bulk shear
- 11 kt
- 0-1 km storm-relative helicity
- -47 m²/s²
- 0-3 km storm-relative helicity
- -54 m²/s²
- Significant tornado parameter
- 0.0
- Supercell composite
- 0.0
- 0-3 km lapse rate
- 2.5 K/km
The surface observations
Mount Ida (MWT), 44 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 22:22 UTC | 66.2 | 59 | 4 kt | 1007.1 | ||
| 22:53 UTC | 68 | 59 | 180° 9 kt | 18 | 1007.1 | |
| 23:29 UTC | 66.2 | 59 | 180° 8 kt | 17 | 1006.8 | |
| 23:37 UTC | 66.2 | 59 | 170° 8 kt | 15 | 1006.8 | |
| 23:53 UTC | 67 | 59 | 170° 9 kt | 14 | 1007.1 | |
| 00:39 UTC | 64.4 | 60.8 | 5 kt | 1006.8 | +RA BR | |
| 00:53 UTC | 63 | 56 | 210° 13 kt | 27 | 1006.8 | +RA |
| 00:58 UTC | 62.6 | 55.4 | 290° 7 kt | 23 | 1007.8 | RA |
| 01:08 UTC | 62.6 | 55.4 | 210° 12 kt | 19 | 1007.1 | -RA |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
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 March 5, 1999
11 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| March 5 | 4:36 PM CST | F0 | Crawford, AR | 0.5 | 30 | $1,000 | ||
| March 5 | 5:30 PM CST | F2 | Johnson, AR | 7.0 | 200 | |||
| March 5 | 5:42 PM CST | F2 | Polk, AR | 12.0 | 200 | |||
| March 5 | 5:46 PM CST | F1 | Johnson, AR | 7.0 | 100 | |||
| March 5 | 6:15 PM CST | F1 | Pope, AR | 10.0 | 100 | |||
| March 5 | 6:18 PM CST | F2 | Polk, AR | 27.2 | 183 | $60,000 | ||
| March 5 | 6:55 PM CST | F1 | Van Buren, AR | 5.5 | 100 | |||
| March 5 | 7:02 PM CST | F3 | Van Buren, AR | 10.0 | 350 | |||
| March 5 | 7:16 PM CST | F3 | Pike, AR | 13.0 | 400 | $2.0 million | ||
| March 5 | 7:43 PM CST | F2 | Clark, AR | 23.0 | 200 | |||
| March 5 | 8:34 PM CST | F1 | Hot Spring, AR | 12.0 | 100 |
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.