Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1999

F1 tornado, Town Bluff to Jasper, Texas, May 25, 1999

From Town Bluff to Jasper, this F1 tornado ran 3.0 miles across Jasper and Tyler counties on May 25, 1999, touching down at 5:35 PM CDT and reaching 20 yards wide. It killed nobody, and did $120,000 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 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
May 25, 1999
Touchdown
5:35 PM CDT (22:35 UTC)
Path length
3.0 miles (4.8 km)
Path width
20 yards (18 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
Property damage
$120,000
Counties
Jasper and Tyler counties
Touchdown point
30.820, -94.180
Lift-off point
30.820, -94.120
Record number
1014

What the Weather Service recorded

A small tornado in Tyler County moved over a campground on the west side of Steinhagen Lake, downing hundreds of trees and damaging several camps. The tornado moved southeast over the lake, and entered Jasper County. On the Jasper County side of the lake, a state park was hit by a tornado for the second time in a little over two weeks, downing hundreds of trees and damaging several camps. Eyewitnesses saw the waterspout move onshore. The most significant damage occurred after the tornado passed through the park, when it damaged a large power pole near the dam on the southeast side of Steinhagen lake.

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

The warnings

2 minutes of warning. NWS LCH issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:33 UTC, 2 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 23:15 UTC.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
21:42 UTC22:45 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningLCH
22:33 UTC23:15 UTCTornado WarningLCH
23:10 UTC00:15 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 General Thunderstorms Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 19:37 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

10.6 hours before the tornado, 120 km from the path. May 25, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 12:00Z on 1999-05-25Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 348 joules per kilogram, CIN -129, lifted condensation level 1155 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 1999-05-25The 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 93 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 26 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
348 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-129 J/kg
Surface CAPE
0 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1155 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
26 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
15 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
93 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
99 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
3.9 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

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

1.4 hours after it, 120 km from the path. May 26, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Lake Charles Mun, LA at 00:00Z on 1999-05-26Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 1135 joules per kilogram, CIN -26, lifted condensation level 1066 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 00:00Z on 1999-05-26The 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 -7 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 22 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
1135 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-26 J/kg
Surface CAPE
3234 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
1066 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
22 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
3 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-7 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
34 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
-0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
6.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The Ft Polk radar (KPOE), 118 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:36 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 May 25, 1999

16 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 252:19 PM MDTF0Sandoval, NM0.150
May 254:22 PM CDTF0Hale, TX0.130
May 253:26 PM MDTF0Chaves, NM0.150
May 255:58 PM CDTF0Randall, TX0.30
May 256:05 PM CDTF0Randall, TX1.00$10,000
May 256:15 PM CDTF0Harmon, OK0.10
May 255:17 PM MDTF0Quay, NM0.150
May 256:31 PM CDTF0Harmon, OK0.20
May 256:38 PM CDTF0Taylor, TX0.110
May 256:51 PM CDTF0Greer, OK0.10
May 257:00 PM CDTF0Runnels, TX0.110
May 257:04 PM CDTF0Greer, OK0.20
May 257:35 PM CDTF0Jackson, OK1.550
May 258:16 PM CDTF0Tillman, OK1.550
May 258:40 PM CDTF0Jones, TX0.110
May 258:55 PM CDTF0Randall, TX0.10$40,000

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.