Tornadoes · United States · Colorado · 1999

F1 tornado, Walsh, Colorado, June 29, 1999

This F1 tornado ran 7.0 miles across Baca County on June 29, 1999, touching down at 2:00 PM MDT and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.

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.

  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 mphthis tornado

    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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
June 29, 1999
Touchdown
2:00 PM MDT (20:00 UTC)
Path length
7.0 miles (11.3 km)
Path width
100 yards (91 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Baca County
Touchdown point
37.200, -102.380
Lift-off point
37.130, -102.150
Record number
1276

What the Weather Service recorded

A supercell which moved southeast through Baca county produced the following three tornados. A tornado began just northwest of the intersection of county road R and country road 42. It moved southeast and struck a ranch complex, destroying a concrete block garage and damaging a vehicle inside. Roof damage was done to the nearby house. The tornado continued to move southeast, then almost due south between ranch houses before lifting 7 miles after initial touchdown.

A tornado, possibly a landspout, roughly parallelled the path of the initial tornado with this supercell. Path width and length, as well as timing are estimates. There was no known damage.

As the supercell moved farther southeast, a tornado began about one mile northeast of a residence and moved over open country and across the Cimarron River in far southeast Baca county. It dissipated over open country near the Colorado - Kansas - Oklahoma borders. The tornado caused no known damage.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
20:22 UTC21:10 UTCTornado WarningPUB

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 20:07 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.

Dodge City, (KDDC), 12:00Z

8.0 hours before the tornado, 219 km from the path. June 29, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1999-06-29Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -61780, lifted condensation level 1416 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dodge City, at 12:00Z on 1999-06-29The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 26 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 39 knots.193958Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-61780 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1416 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
39 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
203 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.8
0-3 km lapse rate
2.2 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Dodge City, (KDDC), 00:00Z

4.0 hours after it, 219 km from the path. June 30, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1999-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1384 joules per kilogram, CIN -215, lifted condensation level 1247 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Dodge City, at 00:00Z on 1999-06-30The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -4 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 42 knots.19395878Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
1384 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-215 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2113 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1247 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
8 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-4 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
78 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Springfield/Comanche Natl Grass (SPD), 34 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
18:56 UTC9257190° 18 kt231008.8
19:33 UTC9553.610° 15 kt181008.8
19:56 UTC9848320° 16 kt211008.5
20:56 UTC9749360° 14 kt181007.8
21:56 UTC9749360° 12 kt161007.5

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

The radar

The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 213 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 20:01 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 ColoradoEvery tornado in Colorado since 1950Warnings in force in Colorado nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of June 29, 1999

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 291:00 PM MDTF0Madison, MT0.210
June 292:05 PM MDTF0Baca, CO2.050
June 292:38 PM MDTF0Baca, CO4.0100
June 293:10 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE1.050
June 294:12 PM CDTF0Todd, SD0.110
June 294:22 PM CDTF0Todd, SD2.530
June 293:35 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE1.050
June 294:44 PM CDTF0Texas, OK0.10
June 293:45 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE1.050
June 293:50 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE2.050$10,000
June 295:35 PM CDTF0Texas, OK0.10
June 297:05 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:12 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX1.050
June 297:15 PM CDTF0Custer, NE1.050
June 297:21 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:39 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:42 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.10
June 297:50 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10$10,000
June 297:56 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:58 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.850
June 298:13 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.30
June 298:15 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.10
June 2912:50 AM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.20$30,000

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.