F2 tornado, Evadale to Call, Texas, January 2, 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

January 2, 1999

Touchdown

12:45 AM CST (06:45 UTC)

Path length

4.5 miles (7.2 km)

Path width

250 yards (229 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

10

Property damage

$1.3 million

Counties

Jasper and Newton counties

Touchdown point

30.350, -93.970

Lift-off point

30.520, -93.770

Record number

49

An F2 tornado moved across southern Jasper County. At least 15 homes were destroyed, 20 received major damage, and 10 received minor damage. The worst hit area was Callier Loop, south of Buna. The fatality occurred here. A tied down mobile home rolled over at least five times, ejecting a man 100 yards and a woman 500 yards. The man received a broken back and other serious injuries, while the woman died a few days later from a broken neck, back, and internal injuries. Debris from this home was spread over a mile across the fields.Brick walls were cracked in permanent homes, pickup trucks were lifted in the air and pushed 20 feet from where they originally were parked, and any mobile home situated lengthwise north to south was rolled over and destroyed. There were several stories of people being ejected from their mobile homes, and walking away with minor injuries.This tornado moved into Newton County. Total path length for both Jasper and Newton Counties is 12.5 miles.

The Jasper County tornado moved into Newton County, and did significant damage to forested lands in rural Newton County.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

19 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 06:26 UTC, 19 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 07:30 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 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 Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 72 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 06:46 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 TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

28 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.