F1 tornado, Panola to Keota, Oklahoma, May 4, 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

May 4, 1999

Touchdown

11:30 AM CDT (16:30 UTC)

Path length

14.0 miles (22.5 km)

Path width

100 yards (91 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$40,000

Counties

Latimer and Haskell counties

Touchdown point

34.880, -95.220

Lift-off point

35.070, -95.100

Record number

1089

Summary of events for May 3-4 1999:Following a week-long blocking weather pattern, a strong upper level trough finally moved out of the southwestern U.S. Interactions with a dryline in western Oklahoma and a slow-moving cold front brought the largest tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history from the afternoon of May 3 through the afternoon of May 4. Most notable was the F5 tornado that moved through southern parts of the Oklahoma City metro area. While the loss of life and the heaviest property damage was limited to central Oklahoma, eastern Oklahoma got into the act with a significant number of tornadoes.While there were dozens of individual storms on May 3 and 4, there are two storms in eastern Oklahoma that stand out as outstanding. The first outstanding storm moved northeast along the I-44 corridor on the evening of May 3, causing F3 damage to Stroud in Lincoln County. The storm went on to cause significant F1 damage in Sapulpa and southwestern portions of the city of Tulsa and millions of dollars in damage.The second outstanding storm got its start in southeast Oklahoma well south of McAlester. This storm moved northeast across Pushmataha, Latimer, Haskell, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties, producing several damaging tornadoes along the way. The final tornado touched down in Sequoyah County and tracked 39 miles to near Fayetteville, AR, producing F3 damage in an unpopulated forest in Adair County.Following a very wet April that saturated area grounds, another slow-moving weather system made flash flooding another serious problem to deal with as most rainfall quickly ran off into creeks, streams and mainstem rivers. One flash flood in Vinita caused millions of dollars in damage following the flooding of dozens of homes.

An F1 tornado touched down south of Panola and moved northeast to the Latimer-Haskell county line. Ths tornado continued to a point in extreme southern Haskell County about 2 miles south of Lequire. Near Panola, this tornado blew down large trees and power lines, and it caused roof damage. After Panola, the tornado primarily affected sparsely-populated hilly terrain.

An F1 tornado that started in Latimer County 2 miles south of Panola eventually moved across the Hasell-Latimer County line, downing numerous trees 2 miles south of Lequire in extreme southern Haskell County before this tornado lifted.

An F0 tornado touched down 2 miles southwest of McCurtain and tracked to south of Keota. Along the way, the tornado heavily damaged several barns, knocked down numerous power lines, and uprooted numerous trees. The McCurtain area was especially hard-hit with numerous downed trees that blocked several roadways.

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

34 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:56 UTC, 34 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 16:45 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 High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:50 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 Western Arkansas radar (KSRX), 81 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:30 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

42 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.