Tornadoes · United States · Oklahoma · 1999
F0 tornado, Catesby, Oklahoma, June 18, 1999
This F0 tornado ran 0.0 miles across Ellis County on June 18, 1999, touching down at 7:06 PM CDT. It killed nobody.
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 mphthis tornado
Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.
F173 to 112 mph
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
- F0
- Date
- June 18, 1999
- Touchdown
- 7:06 PM CDT (00:06 UTC)
- Path length
- 0.0 miles (0.0 km)
- Path width
- 0 yards (0 m)
- Deaths
- 0
- Injuries
- 0
- County
- Ellis County
- Touchdown point
- 36.550, -99.900
- Lift-off point
- 36.550, -99.900
- Record number
- 1325
What the Weather Service recorded
Widely scattered thunderstorms produced isolated areas of severe weather across northwest Oklahoma during the evening of the 18th. Two tornadoes were reported. An off-duty National Weather Service meteorologist reported the first tornado about 3 miles southwest of Laverne in Harper County. No damage was observed (F0), while the 2nd tornado was reported by a ham radio operator 5 miles northeast of Catesby in Ellis County. Touchdown was very brief with no damage observed (F0).
From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.
The surface observations
Gage/Shattuck (GAG), 30 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.
The radar
The Dodge City radar (KDDC), 135 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:03 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.
This ground now
The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are
The other tornadoes of June 18, 1999
4 more were confirmed in the United States that day.
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.