F2 tornado, Burney to Checotah, Oklahoma, March 8, 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

March 8, 1999

Touchdown

6:07 PM CST (00:07 UTC)

Path length

1.2 miles (1.9 km)

Path width

200 yards (183 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

4

Property damage

$90,000

County

McIntosh County

Touchdown point

35.430, -95.820

Lift-off point

35.430, -95.800

Record number

798

Summary of events for March 8 1999:A band of moderate to heavy rain moved across the area during the morning of March 8 in association with a warm front out in advance of a low pressure center. The rain brought localized nuisance flooding. Once the morning rains passed, warmer air moved into eastern Oklahoma during the afternoon, and an upper level low with lots of cold air aloft moved into the area. Thunderstorms then erupted late in the afternoon along an eastward moving dryline/cold front. Some of these thunderstorms displayed characteristics of low-precipitation supercells which then produced damaging tornadoes, most notably in McIntosh County and at Broken Arrow in Tulsa County. The Broken Arrow tornado occurred miles behind any radar-indicated thunderstorm activity and was possibly the result of a cold-air funnel under the cold upper low which reached the ground.

A tornado first touched down near Burney, which is in western McIntosh County near mile marker 248 on Interstate 40. The tornado travelled parallel to and south of the interstate in the Tiger Mountain area but then crossed interstate 40 closest to mile marker 249 as it was lifting. Most of the damage from this tornado was F1-strength, but some F2-strength damage occurred.The tornado first destroyed two mobile homes. Roofing from the first destroyed home was found 150 feet to the east, and a car was crushed in a car port. The second mobile home destroyed was a brand new double-wide that had recently been tied down. The mobile home rolled 30 to 40 feet and was totally destroyed. Four members of a family inside the home were injured, one of them critically. Two cars in a car port were damaged. Further east, shingles were torn off the south and west sides of a house, and a tin shed was destroyed with debris scattered to the north and east. Another shed with appliances inside was destroyed. The tornado then passed near a small dwelling, where numerous large trees were down and a 20-foot pontoon was moved 15 feet over a tree. The tornado then hit another double-wide mobile home, which had its apron blown out on one side, had trim peeled off, and it had a window broken. Two nearby power poles were snapped off. Finally, the tornado passed a well-built two-story home. This home had shingles blown off the roof, windows broken, a sun porch was destroyed, a metal hay shed lost its roof, many large trees were blown down, two small storage sheds were destroyed,a 20-foot horse trailer rolled over, and a Ford F150 crew cab was moved 10 feet.

The same parent storm which produced a tornado near Burney and Tiger Mountain produced another tornado which touched down near Pierce. At Pierce, the tornado removed roofs from quite a few homes. In Pierce, the tornado also damaged vehicles and boats.Further east, the tornado crossed Interstate 40 near Fountainhead Road (OK Hwy 150). As it crossed the interstate, four 18-wheelers were knocked over, but the drivers escaped injury. After crossing the interstate, the tornado travelled through the Sycamore Bay development, damaging ten to twelve homes. The damage included cracked ceilings, a destroyed garage, and shingles ripped off to the bare wood. One home was moved 30 feet from its foundation, and it took the roof off of another.The tornado then crossed Lake Eufaula as a waterspout, destroying five boats and several docks at Emerald Bay. Once the tornado came back onshore, it hit Lotawatah Road, where it moved a double-wide mobile home from its foundation. Another home lost its roof, and outbuildings were destroyed. A trucking company was hit, destroying five 60-foot trailers and damaging others. The tornado then crossed Humphrey Road at a racing stable, destroying six of their structures and six corrals. When the tornado reached US Hwy 266, part of a home's roof collapsed, and a horse trailer was thrown on top of a barn, which then collapsed. Along its entire path, numerous power poles were snapped off at the base. Spotters reported seeing two or three simultaneous tornadoes at times. Fortunately, the tornado lifted just before entering Checotah.

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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 20:05 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 live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in OklahomaEvery tornado in Oklahoma since 1950Warnings in force in Oklahoma nowThe forecast where you are

6 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.