Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 1999
F1 tornado, (Pah)Barkley Arpt Pa, Kentucky, January 22, 1999
This F1 tornado ran 1.3 miles across McCracken County on January 22, 1999, touching down at 1:00 AM CST and reaching 100 yards wide. It killed nobody and injured 2, and did $500,000 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.
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 mphthis tornado
Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.
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.
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
- F1
- Date
- January 22, 1999
- Touchdown
- 1:00 AM CST (07:00 UTC)
- Path length
- 1.3 miles (2.1 km)
- Path width
- 100 yards (91 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 2
- Property damage
- $500,000
- County
- McCracken County
- Touchdown point
- 37.100, -88.850
- Lift-off point
- 37.100, -88.820
- Record number
- 32
What the Weather Service recorded
The tornado formed near the Ballard/McCracken County line, just east of Kevil. It tracked northeast for about a mile through the Lone Lake subdivision. In the Lone Lake subdivision, three mobile homes were blown off their foundations, and two other mobile homes were severely damaged. Three garages, two cars, and a camper were destroyed. Closer to the beginning of the tornado track along the Ballard County line, two barns were destroyed, and four houses received minor damage. Top winds in this tornado were estimated near 100 MPH.
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The forecast that day
The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:49 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 surface observations
Paducah/Barkley (PAH), 7 km from the path, in the two hours either side.
| Time (UTC) | Temp (°F) | Dew point (°F) | Wind | Gust (kt) | Pressure (mb) | Weather |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 00:00 UTC |
From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in KentuckyEvery tornado in Kentucky since 1950Warnings in force in Kentucky nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of January 22, 1999
42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
| Date | Time | Rating | Where | Path (mi) | Width (yd) | Deaths | Injuries | Damage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 22 | 12:52 AM CST | F1 | Ballard, KY | 1.0 | 100 | 6 | $200,000 | |
| January 22 | 1:15 AM CST | F2 | Pope, IL | 1.5 | 150 | $800,000 | ||
| January 22 | 1:50 AM CST | F1 | Union Parish, LA to AR | 21.0 | 40 | $3,000 | ||
| January 22 | 2:25 AM CST | F1 | Grant, AR | 3.0 | 100 | |||
| January 22 | 3:20 AM CST | F3 | Benton, TN | 15.0 | 220 | 1 | 5 | $1.0 million |
| January 22 | 4:15 AM CST | F3 | Montgomery, TN | 4.3 | 880 | 5 | $73 million | |
| January 22 | 4:25 AM CST | F1 | Shelby, TN | 3.5 | 100 | $300,000 | ||
| January 22 | 4:43 AM CST | F2 | Humphreys, TN | 4.0 | 220 | 1 | $500,000 | |
| January 22 | 5:02 AM CST | F0 | Red River Parish, LA | 10.7 | 0 | |||
| January 22 | 5:10 AM CST | F0 | DeSoto, MS | 2.0 | 0 | $50,000 | ||
| January 22 | 5:49 AM CST | F1 | Bienville Parish, LA | 20.5 | 0 | |||
| January 22 | 5:52 AM CST | F1 | Jackson Parish, LA | 21.9 | 0 | |||
| January 22 | 6:22 AM CST | F1 | Lincoln Parish, LA | 11.9 | 40 | |||
| January 22 | 8:23 AM CST | F0 | Chicot, AR | 1.5 | 50 | |||
| January 22 | 9:25 AM CST | F0 | Jefferson, MS | 1.0 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| January 22 | 9:45 AM CST | F0 | Claiborne, MS | 1.0 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| January 22 | 10:15 AM CST | F0 | Hinds, MS | 1.0 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| January 22 | 10:20 AM CST | F0 | Holmes, MS | 1.0 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| January 22 | 10:30 AM CST | F0 | Newton, TX | 1.0 | 10 | $30,000 | ||
| January 22 | 10:40 AM CST | F0 | Vernon Parish, LA | 1.0 | 10 | $30,000 | ||
| January 22 | 10:58 AM CST | F0 | Hinds, MS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| January 22 | 11:25 AM CST | F0 | Chester, TN | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| January 22 | 12:05 PM CST | F0 | Hardeman, TN | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| January 22 | 12:09 PM CST | F0 | Natchitoches Parish, LA | 3.0 | 0 | |||
| January 22 | 12:10 PM CST | F0 | Grant Parish, LA | 3.8 | 20 | |||
| January 22 | 12:35 PM CST | F1 | Alcorn, MS | 5.0 | 50 | $70,000 | ||
| January 22 | 1:15 PM CST | F0 | Concordia Parish, LA | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| January 22 | 2:32 PM CST | F0 | Carroll, MS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| January 22 | 2:40 PM CST | F0 | Warren, MS | 4.0 | 50 | $3,000 | ||
| January 22 | 3:00 PM CST | F0 | Holmes, MS | 1.0 | 50 | |||
| January 22 | 3:15 PM CST | F0 | Prentiss, MS | 0.2 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| January 22 | 3:39 PM CST | F0 | Franklin, AL | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| January 22 | 3:43 PM CST | F0 | Colbert, AL | 1.0 | 30 | |||
| January 22 | 4:43 PM CST | F0 | Morgan, AL | 0.3 | 30 | |||
| January 22 | 4:52 PM CST | F0 | Fayette, AL | 0.2 | 30 | $10,000 | ||
| January 22 | 5:10 PM CST | F1 | Bowie, TX | 0.3 | 0 | $40,000 | ||
| January 22 | 5:10 PM CST | F0 | Lee, MS | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| January 22 | 5:15 PM CST | F1 | Winston, AL | 1.5 | 0 | $90,000 | ||
| January 22 | 5:15 PM CST | F0 | Pike, MS | 0.1 | 20 | $10,000 | ||
| January 22 | 5:20 PM CST | F0 | Prentiss, MS | 0.1 | 10 | |||
| January 22 | 5:45 PM CST | F0 | Lawrence, MS | 1.0 | 0 | $10,000 | ||
| January 22 | 7:35 PM CST | F0 | Miller, AR | 3.6 | 0 |
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.