Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1999

F0 tornado, Panhandle to Conway, Texas, June 29, 1999

From Panhandle to Conway, this F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Carson County on June 29, 1999, touching down at 8:15 PM CDT. It killed nobody.

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
June 29, 1999
Touchdown
8:15 PM CDT (01:15 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
0 yards (0 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Carson County
Touchdown point
35.230, -101.350
Lift-off point
35.230, -101.350
Record number
1222

What the Weather Service recorded

A trough of low pressure at the surface extending into the Texas panhandle from a surface low pressure system over southeast Colorado and a warm front moving north across the Texas panhandle allowed for severe thunderstorms with numerous tornadoes along with large hail and damaging winds to develop from the north-central Texas panhandle into the south-central Texas panhandle during the late afternoon hours and then through the night.

The tornado remained over open country and the track was estimated.

The tornado remained over open country and the track was estimated.

The tornado remained over open country and the track was estimated.

The tornado remained over open country and the track was estimated.

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

The warnings

35 minutes of warning. NWS AMA issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:40 UTC, 35 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:30 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
23:59 UTC00:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
00:40 UTC01:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA
01:30 UTC02:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningAMA
02:22 UTC03:30 UTCTornado WarningAMA

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 00:58 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.

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 00:00Z

1.3 hours before the tornado, 32 km from the path. June 30, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1999-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1987 joules per kilogram, CIN -18, lifted condensation level 2394 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 00:00Z on 1999-06-30The 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 107 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 38 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1987 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-18 J/kg
Surface CAPE
4062 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2394 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
38 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
21 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
107 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
274 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
20.7
0-3 km lapse rate
8.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Amarillo Airport, TX (KAMA), 12:00Z

10.7 hours after it, 32 km from the path. June 30, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-06-30Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1140 joules per kilogram, CIN -366, lifted condensation level 1818 meters above ground. Wind barbs in knots down the right edge.LCLLFCEL10008507005003002001001 km2 km3 km6 km9 km12 km15 km-30°-20°-10°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, Amarillo Airport, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-06-30The 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 83 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 32 knots.193958Sfc1 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
1140 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-366 J/kg
Surface CAPE
2151 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1818 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
32 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
25 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
83 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
97 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Amarillo - Rick Husband Intl (AMA), 32 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:56 UTC9164210° 23 kt261007.1
00:56 UTC8963210° 17 kt231007.5
01:56 UTC8662200° 14 kt1007.8
02:56 UTC8363150° 15 kt1008.8

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

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 June 29, 1999

23 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
June 291:00 PM MDTF0Madison, MT0.210
June 292:00 PM MDTF1Baca, CO7.0100$30,000
June 292:05 PM MDTF0Baca, CO2.050
June 292:38 PM MDTF0Baca, CO4.0100
June 293:10 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE1.050
June 294:12 PM CDTF0Todd, SD0.110
June 294:22 PM CDTF0Todd, SD2.530
June 293:35 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE1.050
June 294:44 PM CDTF0Texas, OK0.10
June 293:45 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE1.050
June 293:50 PM MDTF0Cherry, NE2.050$10,000
June 295:35 PM CDTF0Texas, OK0.10
June 297:05 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:12 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX1.050
June 297:15 PM CDTF0Custer, NE1.050
June 297:21 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:39 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:42 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.10
June 297:50 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10$10,000
June 297:56 PM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.10
June 297:58 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.850
June 298:13 PM CDTF0Carson, TX0.30
June 2912:50 AM CDTF0Hansford, TX0.20$30,000

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.