F2 tornado, Carrier, Oklahoma, April 21, 1999

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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F2

Date

April 21, 1999

Touchdown

6:45 PM CDT (23:45 UTC)

Path length

8.5 miles (13.7 km)

Path width

500 yards (457 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$1.5 million

County

Garfield County

Touchdown point

36.470, -98.080

Lift-off point

36.520, -97.970

Record number

910

Severe thunderstorms affected parts of western and central Oklahoma from late afternoon of the 21st through the early morning of the 22nd. An F2 tornado that struck the town of Carrier in Garfield County received the most attention, however 2 other tornadoes did form, and there were many reports of damaging straight-line winds and large, destructive hail. A team of National Weather Service meteorologists surveyed the damage in and near Carrier and rated the tornado an F2. The tornado developed at 1745 CST approximately 4 miles west-southwest of Carrier. The tornado moved along a path from west-southwest to east-northeast from its starting point to Carrier. The path width was approximately 150 yards wide early in the tornado's life. At a point 2 miles southwest of Carrier F2 damage was observed. A home had its roof ripped off and two walls collapsed. As the tornado began to approach Carrier it widened to approximately 500 yards. Four homes in Carrier lost all of their roofs with all four walls standing. One older abandoned cinder block building collapsed. A school and church on the north side of Carrier suffered only minor roof or window damage. As the storm moved out of Carrier it turned to the northeast and narrowed to 200 yards. At about 2 miles northeast of Carrier one home had significant damage to its roof while another suffered minor roof damage. The tornado was rated F1 at this point.The tornado dissipated at 1805 CST about 4 miles northeast of Carrier. The combination of the tornado and straight-line winds in believed to have been responsible for the majority of damage. After the tornado dissipated, straight-line winds continued to cause some damage for several miles. Significant tree damage was noted 4 miles east northeast of Carrier which was one and a half miles south of the tornado damage path. In total 8 homes and businesses were destroyed; 14 buildings sustained major damage, while 19 others sustained minor damage. Damage is estimated at 1.5 million dollars.Another tornado, an F0, was reported by Garfield County Emergency Management causing minor damage to roofs of 2 homes west-northwest of Vance Air Force Base. The 3rd and last tornado of the day, an F1, touched down about 1 mile northeast of Billings in Noble County and destroyed a barn and 2 outbuildings. In addition trees were blown down and several house windows were blown out; numerous farm animals were killed, and 2 semis were blown over on Interstate 35 near mile marker 207. The driver of one of the trucks was injured by broken glass. In addition to tornadoes, large and destructive hail fell in many areas including Hennessey in Kingfisher County where an unusually large amount of golf ball to baseball-size hail fell several times on the 21st causing extensive damage to vehicles, homes, and wheat crop. At least 900,000 dollars is expected to be paid out by just one insurance company which received nearly 750 claims. Among the list of hail damage reports: a pick-up truck was struck by golf ball-size hail 6 miles west of Lacey in Kingfisher County, and numerous vehicles had their windows broken by tennis ball-size hail 16 miles west of Hennessey, also in Kingfisher County.Damaging straight-line winds were observed by the Chief of the Kremlin Fire Department in Garfield County who experienced a brief period of 70 to 80 mph winds from the northwest near the intersection of Highway 81 and Great Lakes Road 8 miles south of Kremlin. He also witnessed an old barn being blown over. Power lines were also downed on the north side of Enid in Garfield County. A wind gust of 90 mph was also observed at the Stillwater Regional Airport in Payne County, where many signs were blown down.

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

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.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Slight Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:57 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 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.

The Vance AFB radar (KVNX), 29 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 23:44 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.

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

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.