Tornadoes · United States · Kentucky · 1999

F1 tornado, Murray to New Concord, Kentucky, July 1, 1999

From Murray to New Concord, this F1 tornado ran 9.0 miles across Calloway County on July 1, 1999, touching down at 7:42 PM CDT and reaching 400 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $100,000 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
July 1, 1999
Touchdown
7:42 PM CDT (00:42 UTC)
Path length
9.0 miles (14.5 km)
Path width
400 yards (366 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$100,000
County
Calloway County
Touchdown point
36.550, -88.320
Lift-off point
36.570, -88.170
Record number
505

What the Weather Service recorded

The tornado formed along U.S. Highway 641 about 5 miles south of Murray and tracked east into the New Concord area. The tornado was rated F-1 intensity with top winds near 110 MPH. Numerous trees were uprooted or snapped off along the path of the tornado. Some of the trees fell on utility lines, vehicles, and buildings. The area was sparsely populated, so damage was relatively light considering the path length and width. At least a dozen or so homes received some damage, mostly light roof or siding damage. There was moderate damage to at least a couple homes. Several barns were damaged. At one residence, a porch was damaged, along with other items such as a television antenna, fence, and swimming pool. Sheet metal from a barn was blown into treetops.

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 19:58 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.

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 00:00Z

0.7 hours before the tornado, 155 km from the path. July 2, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1999-07-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1396 joules per kilogram, CIN -1, lifted condensation level 1205 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 00:00Z on 1999-07-02The 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 19 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
1396 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-1 J/kg
Surface CAPE
417 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1205 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
11 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
26 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
179 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.3 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Nashville Metro, TN (KBNA), 12:00Z

11.3 hours after it, 155 km from the path. July 2, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1999-07-02Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 626 joules per kilogram, CIN -64, lifted condensation level 1006 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, Nashville Metro, TN at 12:00Z on 1999-07-02The 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 121 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 knots.1939Sfc1 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
626 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-64 J/kg
Surface CAPE
617 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1006 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
19 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
121 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
180 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
3.5
0-3 km lapse rate
4.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Murray (CEY), 16 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
22:56 UTC8272230° 7 kt1009.1
23:56 UTC7472270° 5 kt1011.2-RA
00:56 UTC7670280° 5 kt1012.2
01:56 UTC74710° 0 kt1012.5

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 July 1, 1999

7 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
July 112:45 PM EDTF0Auglaize, OH0.130$10,000
July 12:00 PM EDTF0Newaygo, MI5.020$10,000
July 15:40 PM EDTF1Wayne, OH7.050$150,000
July 15:55 PM EDTF0Preble, OH0.1100$20,000
July 17:00 PM EDTF0Lycoming, PA0.5200$10,000
July 17:30 PM EDTF1Sullivan, PA5.0200$200,000
July 17:55 PM EDTF0Bradford, PA2.7150$10,000

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.