Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1999

F0 tornado, Call, Texas, January 22, 1999

This F0 tornado ran 1.0 miles across Newton County on January 22, 1999, touching down at 10:30 AM CST and reaching 10 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $30,000 of property damage.

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.

  1. F040 to 72 mphthis tornado

    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 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.

The record

Rating
F0
Date
January 22, 1999
Touchdown
10:30 AM CST (16:30 UTC)
Path length
1.0 miles (1.6 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$30,000
County
Newton County
Touchdown point
30.470, -93.870
Lift-off point
30.470, -93.870
Record number
68

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado touched down in rural areas, damaging some trees.

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

The warnings

35 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 15:55 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 17:00 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
15:38 UTC16:55 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
15:55 UTC17:00 UTCTornado WarningLCH

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 forecast that day

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Moderate Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 10:49 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 air that afternoon

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.

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 12:00Z

4.5 hours before the tornado, 75 km from the path. January 22, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1999-01-22Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 2024 joules per kilogram, CIN -7, lifted condensation level 561 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1999-01-22The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity 214 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 58 knots.1939587897Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
2024 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-7 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2204 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
561 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
58 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
37 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
214 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
249 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
1.9
Supercell composite
9.8
0-3 km lapse rate
5.8 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Lake Charles Mun, LA (KLCH), 00:00Z

7.5 hours after it, 75 km from the path. January 23, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1999-01-23Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 0 joules per kilogram, CIN -88059, lifted condensation level 2217 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°0°10°20°30°40°
Temperature in red, dew point in green, the mixed-layer parcel dashed. The warm shading is its CAPE, the cool shading the inhibition it has to break through.
HodographHodograph, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1999-01-23The wind through the lowest 10 kilometers as a curve, rings every 10 meters per second labeled in knots. Zero to 1 km storm-relative helicity -122 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 75 knots.1939587897117Sfc1 km3 km6 km9 kmRMLM
The wind turning with height, colored by layer: ground to 1 km, 1 to 3 km, 3 to 6 km, 6 to 10 km. RM and LM are the right and left moving storms Bunkers' method gives; the shaded area is the 0 to 1 km storm-relative helicity.
Mixed-layer CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-88059 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2217 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
75 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-122 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-102 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Beaumont - Port Arthur (BPT), 60 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
14:53 UTC7067190° 11 kt999.7BR
15:53 UTC7268180° 15 kt999.7BR
16:53 UTC7168220° 14 kt1000BR
17:08 UTC71.666.2220° 13 kt1000.3
17:53 UTC7367230° 10 kt1000HZ
18:21 UTC71.666.2260° 10 kt1000

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of airport observations.

The radar

The Lake Charles radar (KLCH), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 16:28 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 TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

The other tornadoes of January 22, 1999

42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
January 2212:52 AM CSTF1Ballard, KY1.01006$200,000
January 221:00 AM CSTF1McCracken, KY1.31002$500,000
January 221:15 AM CSTF2Pope, IL1.5150$800,000
January 221:50 AM CSTF1Union Parish, LA to AR21.040$3,000
January 222:25 AM CSTF1Grant, AR3.0100
January 223:20 AM CSTF3Benton, TN15.022015$1.0 million
January 224:15 AM CSTF3Montgomery, TN4.38805$73 million
January 224:25 AM CSTF1Shelby, TN3.5100$300,000
January 224:43 AM CSTF2Humphreys, TN4.02201$500,000
January 225:02 AM CSTF0Red River Parish, LA10.70
January 225:10 AM CSTF0DeSoto, MS2.00$50,000
January 225:49 AM CSTF1Bienville Parish, LA20.50
January 225:52 AM CSTF1Jackson Parish, LA21.90
January 226:22 AM CSTF1Lincoln Parish, LA11.940
January 228:23 AM CSTF0Chicot, AR1.550
January 229:25 AM CSTF0Jefferson, MS1.050$3,000
January 229:45 AM CSTF0Claiborne, MS1.050$3,000
January 2210:15 AM CSTF0Hinds, MS1.050$3,000
January 2210:20 AM CSTF0Holmes, MS1.050$3,000
January 2210:40 AM CSTF0Vernon Parish, LA1.010$30,000
January 2210:58 AM CSTF0Hinds, MS1.050
January 2211:25 AM CSTF0Chester, TN0.110
January 2212:05 PM CSTF0Hardeman, TN0.110
January 2212:09 PM CSTF0Natchitoches Parish, LA3.00
January 2212:10 PM CSTF0Grant Parish, LA3.820
January 2212:35 PM CSTF1Alcorn, MS5.050$70,000
January 221:15 PM CSTF0Concordia Parish, LA1.050
January 222:32 PM CSTF0Carroll, MS1.050
January 222:40 PM CSTF0Warren, MS4.050$3,000
January 223:00 PM CSTF0Holmes, MS1.050
January 223:15 PM CSTF0Prentiss, MS0.220$10,000
January 223:39 PM CSTF0Franklin, AL0.330
January 223:43 PM CSTF0Colbert, AL1.030
January 224:43 PM CSTF0Morgan, AL0.330
January 224:52 PM CSTF0Fayette, AL0.230$10,000
January 225:10 PM CSTF1Bowie, TX0.30$40,000
January 225:10 PM CSTF0Lee, MS0.110
January 225:15 PM CSTF1Winston, AL1.50$90,000
January 225:15 PM CSTF0Pike, MS0.120$10,000
January 225:20 PM CSTF0Prentiss, MS0.110
January 225:45 PM CSTF0Lawrence, MS1.00$10,000
January 227:35 PM CSTF0Miller, AR3.60

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.