F1 tornado, Claremore, Oklahoma, November 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

November 22, 1999

Touchdown

7:47 PM CST (01:47 UTC)

Path length

3.0 miles (4.8 km)

Path width

0 yards (0 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$150,000

County

Rogers County

Touchdown point

36.280, -95.570

Lift-off point

36.320, -95.530

Record number

657

Summary of events for November 22 1999:A surge of warm, moist and unstable air ahead of a cold front and a strengthening frontal wave fired off numerous thunderstorms well east of I-35 late in the afternoon, gradually shifting east to near the Arkansas and Missouri state lines by late evening. Many of the first thunderstorms of the day took on supercell characteristics, some of which produced tornadoes and very large hail. Due to the slow movement of the line of storms, many places saw from one to three inches of rain, but dry preceding conditions kept flooding to a minimum. Around 7 to 8 PM, the line of storms became more solid with four to five bow echoes forming, producing strong winds and marginally severe hail. The storms had all weakened below severe limits by midnight.

A tornado touched down 3 miles southeast of Claremore and traveled about 3 miles northeast to 1/2 mile northeast of Will Rogers Downs or 4 miles east of Claremore. One mobile home was destroyed and another mobile home was blown off its foundation. A house under construction was flattened and three horse barns were heavily damaged.

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

22 minutes of warning. NWS TSA issued a tornado warning for this county at 01:25 UTC, 22 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 02:00 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 19:56 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

4 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.