Tornadoes · United States · Texas · 1999

F0 tornado, Sterling City, Texas, May 31, 1999

This F0 tornado ran 0.1 miles across Sterling County on May 31, 1999, touching down at 7:30 PM CDT and reaching 10 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 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
May 31, 1999
Touchdown
7:30 PM CDT (00:30 UTC)
Path length
0.1 miles (0.2 km)
Path width
10 yards (9 m)
Deaths
0
Injuries
0
County
Sterling County
Touchdown point
31.830, -101.170
Lift-off point
31.830, -101.170
Record number
440

What the Weather Service recorded

Severe storms pounded the Big Country and northern Concho Valley once again during the evening of the 31st. Although a brief tornado did touch down west of Sterling City, the only damage was caused when a combination of strong winds and baseball size hail broke 40 to 50 windows at residences just northwest of Sterling City. The winds also destroyed a carport and downed trees. In addition, softball size hail was reported near Maryneal in central Nolan County, with baseball size hail falling near Throckmorton, Merkel, and Rotan.

A brief tornado touched down west of Sterling City.

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

The warnings

No tornado warning for this county appears in the archive as in force at the moment the tornado touched down. One was issued for the county at another hour that day.

Issued (UTC)ExpiredProductOffice
00:07 UTC01:10 UTCSevere Thunderstorm WarningSJT
00:36 UTC01:40 UTCTornado WarningSJT

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 20:06 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.

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 00:00Z

0.5 hours before the tornado, 98 km from the path. June 1, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1999-06-01Temperature 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 -4804, lifted condensation level 4094 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, Midland Regional, TX at 00:00Z on 1999-06-01The 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 -6 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 30 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
-4804 J/kg
Surface CAPE
790 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
4094 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
30 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
2 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
-6 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
132 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
-0.1
0-3 km lapse rate
9.6 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

Midland Regional, TX (KMAF), 12:00Z

11.5 hours after it, 98 km from the path. June 1, 1999.

Skew-T log-pSkew-T log-p diagram, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-06-01Temperature and dew point through the depth of the atmosphere, with the mixed-layer parcel lifted from the surface. Mixed-layer CAPE 55 joules per kilogram, CIN -343, lifted condensation level 2523 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, Midland Regional, TX at 12:00Z on 1999-06-01The 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 23 square meters per square second, 0 to 6 km bulk shear 28 knots.19395878Sfc1 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
55 J/kg
Mixed-layer CIN
-343 J/kg
Surface CAPE
1602 J/kg
Mixed-layer LCL
2523 m above ground
0-6 km bulk shear
28 kt
0-1 km bulk shear
13 kt
0-1 km storm-relative helicity
23 m²/s²
0-3 km storm-relative helicity
20 m²/s²
Significant tornado parameter
0.0
Supercell composite
0.0
0-3 km lapse rate
5.5 K/km

Open this sounding in Storm Lab

The radar

The San Angelo radar (KSJT), 82 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 00:29 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 31, 1999

21 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

DateTimeRatingWherePath (mi)Width (yd)DeathsInjuriesDamage
May 3112:08 PM MDTF0Platte, WY0.130
May 313:42 PM CDTF0Baldwin, AL0.120
May 316:38 PM EDTF2Midland, MI1.8200$150,000
May 315:50 PM CDTF0Meade, KS2.030
May 316:25 PM CDTF0Meade, KS0.250
May 315:50 PM MDTF1Washington, CO0.250
May 316:58 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK0.10
May 317:06 PM CDTF0Glasscock, TX0.370
May 317:18 PM CDTF0Beckham, OK0.550
May 317:30 PM CDTF1Clark, KS4.2150
May 316:45 PM MDTF2Lincoln, CO7.0100
May 316:47 PM MDTF3Lincoln, CO7.0200$4.0 million
May 317:50 PM CDTF1Comanche, KS1.50
May 317:57 PM CDTF0Greer, OK1.0200
May 318:24 PM CDTF1Jackson, OK2.5100$10,000
May 317:30 PM MDTF0Lincoln, CO0.10
May 318:37 PM CDTF0Jackson, OK0.250
May 317:51 PM MDTF1Lincoln, CO0.550
May 318:51 PM CDTF0Kiowa, OK2.0440
May 319:40 PM CDTF0Ellsworth, KS2.00$10,000
May 3111:07 PM CDTF0Alfalfa, OK2.00$2,000

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.