F3 tornado, Mt Vernon to Falls Chapel, Texas, May 4, 1999

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 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 mphthis tornado

   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.

Rating

F3

Date

May 4, 1999

Touchdown

2:04 PM CDT (19:04 UTC)

Path length

71.5 miles (115.0 km)

Path width

50 yards (46 m)

Deaths

1

Injuries

22

Property damage

$125 million

Counties

Franklin, Titus, Red River, Bowie, Little River and Sevier counties

Touchdown point

33.180, -95.170

Lift-off point

33.830, -94.180

Record number

285

Supercells developed in unstable airmass ahead of strong upper low over central plains states. Damage confined to broken branches off trees and snapped twigs. This tornado moved into Titus county, TX.

Seven homes were destroyed. Two of the homes were swept from their slabs.

Numerous trees were blown over or broken. A few out buildings were severely damaged. This tornado moved from Titus county, TX into Red River county, TX and exited into Bowie county TX.

This tornado moved directly through the downtown district of De Kalb and across a high school. Numerous homes and businesses were severely damaged or destroyed. The high school suffered severe damage. Sirens sounded 15 minutes prior to arrival of the storm. The damage resulted in a Presidential Disaster Declaration. This tornado moved from Red River county, TX across Bowie county, TX into Little River county, AR.

Damage path consisted of numerous snapped and fallen small trees. The damage path was in a wooded region away from any population. This tornado moved into Little River county from Bowie county, TX then continued into Sevier county, AR.

Damage path consisted of a few small trees and twigs broken. The tornado rating in the county was only an F0 but the overall intensity was F3 in Bowie County, TX.

The deaths

1 direct deaths are recorded for this tornado, each with what Storm Data knows of it.

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

32 minutes of warning. NWS SHV issued a tornado warning for this county at 18:32 UTC, 32 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 19:20 UTC.

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 Storm Prediction Center had this point in a High Risk. The outlook in force was issued at 16:50 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 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.

Texarkana Regional/Webb (TXK), 64 km from the path, in the two hours either side.

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

The Shreveport radar (KSHV), 141 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 19:05 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.

The live radar over the trackEvery 1999 tornado in TexasEvery tornado in Texas since 1950Warnings in force in Texas nowThe forecast where you are

42 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

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.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.