Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1999

F1 tornado, Pearsall, Texas, March 12, 1999

This F1 tornado ran 1.5 miles across Frio County on March 12, 1999, touching down at 7:05 PM CST and reaching 250 yards wide. 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 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.

The record

Rating
F1
Date
March 12, 1999
Touchdown
7:05 PM CST (01:05 UTC)
Path length
1.5 miles (2.4 km)
Path width
250 yards (229 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Frio County
Touchdown point
28.880, -99.130
Lift-off point
28.880, -99.100
Record number
800

What the Weather Service recorded

The same chaser who viewed the tornado just southeast of Batesville, observed a second tornado as it developed over open country near Pearsall. This one lived for approximately three minutes, then became rain-wrapped and dissipated.

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

The warnings

20 minutes of warning. NWS EWX issued a tornado warning for this county at 00:45 UTC, 20 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 01:45 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:32 UTC01:30 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
00:45 UTC01:45 UTCTornado WarningEWX
01:48 UTC02:50 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
03:08 UTC04:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX
04:08 UTC05:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningEWX

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 00:54 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.

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 00:00Z

1.1 hours before the tornado, 176 km from the path. March 13, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 1999-03-13Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 741 joules per kilogram, CIN -142, lifted condensation level 1309 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, Del Rio, TX at 00:00Z on 1999-03-13The 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 151 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 86 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
741 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-142 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1670 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1309 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
86 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
151 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
473 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.6
Supercell composite
11.0
0-3 km lapse rate
6.7 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Del Rio, TX (KDRT), 12:00Z

10.9 hours after it, 176 km from the path. March 13, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-03-13Temperature 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 -88386, lifted condensation level 891 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, Del Rio, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-03-13The 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 -265 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 88 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
-88386 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
891 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
88 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
24 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-265 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
-243 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
4.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The surface observations

Cotulla Municipal (COT), 48 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

Time (UTC)Temp (°F)Dew point (°F)WindGust (kt)Pressure (mb)Weather
23:51 UTC84.266.2120° 11 kt997.6
00:50 UTC82.466.2110° 10 kt998
02:50 UTC75.269.890° 13 kt1000.7

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 March 12, 1999

5 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
March 122:15 PM CSTF2McCulloch, TX2.00$100,000
March 122:40 PM CSTF2San Saba, TX8.0100$300,000
March 125:40 PM CSTF0Burnet, TX0.520
March 126:35 PM CSTF0Zavala, TX0.5100
March 1210:10 PM CSTF1Tyler, TX3.020$100,000

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.