Tornadoes · United States · Indiana · 1999

F3 tornado, Rexville to Olean, Indiana, April 9, 1999

From Rexville to Olean, this F3 tornado ran 15.0 miles across Ripley County on April 9, 1999, touching down at 3:05 AM EST and reaching 450 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $1.4 million 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 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.

The record

Rating
F3
Date
April 9, 1999
Touchdown
3:05 AM EST (08:05 UTC)
Path length
15.0 miles (24.1 km)
Path width
450 yards (411 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
2
Property damage
$1.4 million
County
Ripley County
Touchdown point
38.880, -85.420
Lift-off point
38.980, -85.220
Record number
847

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado moved into Jefferson Proving Grounds from Jennings county and moved northeast across the county. Four mobile homes were destroyed and 4 were damaged. One house was destroyed while 8 had heavy damage and 20 minor damage. Twenty-one barns were destroyed, 6 had heavy damage, and 14 received minor damage. Seventeen outbuildings were destroyed while 4 had heavy damage and 11 minor damage. Four vehicles received major damage and 3 had minor damage. Five pieces of farm equipment were destroyed while 4 incurred major damage. Seven livestock were lost with 2 being killed and 2 injured. Trees were also downed in the path.

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.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 05:55 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 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.

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 00:00Z

8.1 hours before the tornado, 142 km from the path. April 9, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 1999-04-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 250 joules per kilogram, CIN -130, lifted condensation level 1483 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 00:00Z on 1999-04-09The 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 24 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 55 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 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
250 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-130 J/kg
Surface CAPE
720 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1483 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
55 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
5 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
24 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
166 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.3
0-3 km lapse rate
6.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Cncnati-Daytn, OH (KILN), 12:00Z

3.9 hours after it, 142 km from the path. April 9, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 1999-04-09Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 52 joules per kilogram, CIN -41, lifted condensation level 936 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, Cncnati-Daytn, OH at 12:00Z on 1999-04-09The 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 156 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 57 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
52 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-41 J/kg
Surface CAPE
566 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
936 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
57 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
36 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
156 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
200 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
1.7
0-3 km lapse rate
6.1 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cincinnati / N Kentucky Intl (CVG), 57 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
06:39 UTC66.262.6190° 12 kt999.7
06:54 UTC6763180° 12 kt999.7
07:07 UTC66.262.6190° 12 kt999.3
07:54 UTC6663190° 12 kt998-TSRA BR
08:04 UTC66.262.6200° 13 kt998.3+TSRA BR
08:13 UTC66.264.4190° 14 kt998-TSRA BR
08:54 UTC6664260° 10 kt20998TSRA BR
08:59 UTC66.264.4250° 13 kt24997.6+TSGSRA BR
09:03 UTC64.460.8260° 17 kt26997.6TSRA BR
09:10 UTC64.460.8220° 11 kt26997.3-TSRA BR
09:26 UTC66.260.8240° 11 kt20997.6-RA
09:54 UTC6457250° 10 kt997.3

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

The radar

The Louisville radar (KLVX), 119 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 08:02 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 IndianaEvery tornado in Indiana since 1950Warnings in force in Indiana nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of April 9, 1999

8 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
April 92:56 AM ESTF3Jefferson, IN3.0250$350,000
April 94:44 AM EDTF0Dearborn, IN1.050$250,000
April 94:55 AM EDTF1Hamilton, OH0.8100$200,000
April 95:00 AM EDTF1Miami, OH3.5100$250,000
April 95:12 AM EDTF4Blue Ash tornado, OH10.0270465$85 million
April 95:33 AM EDTF2Warren, OH1.5100$2.5 million
April 96:00 AM EDTF1Champaign, OH0.5220$300,000
April 96:17 PM EDTF1Spotsylvania, VA3.5100$20,000

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.