F1 tornado, Inola to Mazie, Oklahoma, April 22, 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 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.

Rating

F1

Date

April 22, 1999

Touchdown

6:47 PM CDT (23:47 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$3,000

Counties

Mayes and Rogers counties

Touchdown point

36.120, -95.450

Lift-off point

36.070, -95.400

Record number

858

Summary of events for April 22 1999:A cold front moved southeast out of Kansas into northeast Oklahoma on the afternoon of April 22. A broken line of thunderstorms formed along the front and quickly became severe as the front continued a steady southeast push. The front slowed down as it neared the I-40 corridor, causing some training thunderstorms and minor flash flooding. These thunderstorms contained the full spectrum of severe weather, from golfball-sized hail to damaging winds to several touchdowns of weak tornadoes.

An F1 tornado touched down in a rural area 4 miles southeast of Inola. This tornado moved east into Mayes County. The tornado reached its widest point of 200 yards in Rogers County. This tornado was responsible for tree damage. For more information on this tornado, see the Mayes County Tornado entry.

This F1 tornado originally formed in extreme southeast Rogers County and then moved east into extreme southwest Mayes County before lifting 2.5 miles southwest of Mazie. This tornado produced tree damage in a mostly rural area. While the tornado reached its widest point of 200 yards in Rogers County, the tornado was about 75 yards at its widest in Mayes County.

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

14 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 23:33 UTC, 14 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 00:15 UTC.

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 20:01 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.

Tulsa International Airport(Aw) (TUL), 43 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

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.