Tornadoes · United States · Iowa · 1999

F0 tornado, Paullina, Iowa, June 5, 1999

This F0 tornado ran 2.2 miles across O'Brien County on June 5, 1999, touching down at 6:12 PM CDT and reaching 50 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $10,000 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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
June 5, 1999
Touchdown
6:12 PM CDT (23:12 UTC)
Path length
2.2 miles (3.5 km)
Path width
50 yards (46 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$10,000
County
O'Brien County
Touchdown point
42.970, -95.630
Lift-off point
42.980, -95.600
Record number
493

What the Weather Service recorded

A tornado caused minor damage to several structures in Paullina. The tornado was photographed by a resident.

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

The warnings

30 minutes of warning. NWS FSD issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:42 UTC, 30 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
22:30 UTC23:00 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD
22:42 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningFSD
23:15 UTC23:30 UTCTornado WarningFSD
23:32 UTC00:20 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningFSD
00:12 UTC03:05 UTCFlash Flood WarningFSD

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 High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 21:12 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.

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 12:00Z

11.2 hours before the tornado, 194 km from the path. June 5, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1999-06-05Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1652 joules per kilogram, CIN -292, lifted condensation level 927 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, Omaha, NE at 12:00Z on 1999-06-05The 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 287 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
1652 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-292 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2296 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
927 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
42 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
40 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
287 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
322 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.6
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Omaha, NE (KOAX), 00:00Z

0.8 hours after it, 194 km from the path. June 6, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1999-06-06Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2262 joules per kilogram, CIN -44, lifted condensation level 1299 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, Omaha, NE at 00:00Z on 1999-06-06The 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 180 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 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
2262 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-44 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2087 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1299 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
244 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.7
Supercell composite
12.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.4 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

This ground now

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

The other tornadoes of June 5, 1999

20 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 52:45 PM MDTF0Crook, WY0.110
June 54:35 PM CDTF0Scott, MN0.10
June 54:40 PM CDTF0Saint Croix, WI0.550
June 55:15 PM CDTF0Plymouth, IA0.150
June 55:20 PM CDTF0Washburn, WI3.5300
June 54:58 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE1.050
June 54:58 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE1.050
June 55:05 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE2.050
June 55:11 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE1.050
June 55:25 PM MDTF0Bennett, SD0.510
June 55:29 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE1.050
June 55:30 PM MDTF0Sheridan, NE1.050
June 55:40 PM MDTF1Sheridan, NE2.0200
June 56:10 PM MDTF0Bennett, SD5.0550
June 57:15 PM CDTF0Rusk, WI0.30
June 56:25 PM MDTF0Bennett, SD3.0100
June 57:30 PM CDTF0, SD0.510
June 58:16 PM CDTF0Rock, NE3.550$70,000
June 58:29 PM CDTF1Rock, NE2.5250$750,000
June 59:35 PM CDTF0Tripp, SD0.110

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.