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F1 tornado in Adair County, Oklahoma

Tornado May 4, 1999 · Adair County, Oklahoma

F1
Rating
0.5 mi
Path length
50 yd
Path width
$1K
Damage as recorded
EF0EF1EF2EF3EF4EF5Unrated

NOAA recorded where this tornado touched down but not where it lifted, so it appears as a point. Other tornadoes recorded nearby that day are shown faint.

What F1 means. This tornado was rated on Fujita’s original scale, used until 2007. F1 meant moderate damage: roofs badly stripped, mobile homes pushed off foundations or overturned, windows broken; the scale paired it with winds of 73–112 mph, figures later judged too high, especially toward the top of the scale, and revised downward in the Enhanced Fujita scale. Ratings then, as now, came from the damage.

What the National Weather Service wrote

A brief F1 tornado touchdown caused many trees to be uprooted and broken.

The wider storm

Summary of events for May 3-4 1999:Following a week-long blocking weather pattern, a strong upper level trough finally moved out of the southwestern U.S. Interactions with a dryline in western Oklahoma and a slow-moving cold front brought the largest tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history from the afternoon of May 3 through the afternoon of May 4. Most notable was the F5 tornado that moved through southern parts of the Oklahoma City metro area. While the loss of life and the heaviest property damage was limited to central Oklahoma, eastern Oklahoma got into the act with a significant number of tornadoes.While there were dozens of individual storms on May 3 and 4, there are two storms in eastern Oklahoma that stand out as outstanding. The first outstanding storm moved northeast along the I-44 corridor on the evening of May 3, causing F3 damage to Stroud in Lincoln County. The storm went on to cause significant F1 damage in Sapulpa and southwestern portions of the city of Tulsa and millions of dollars in damage.The second outstanding storm got its start in southeast Oklahoma well south of McAlester. This storm moved northeast across Pushmataha, Latimer, Haskell, LeFlore and Sequoyah Counties, producing several damaging tornadoes along the way. The final tornado touched down in Sequoyah County and tracked 39 miles to near Fayetteville, AR, producing F3 damage in an unpopulated forest in Adair County.Following a very wet April that saturated area grounds, another slow-moving weather system made flash flooding another serious problem to deal with as most rainfall quickly ran off into creeks, streams and mainstem rivers. One flash flood in Vinita caused millions of dollars in damage following the flooding of dozens of homes.

Began near Proctor (36.0000, -94.7300).

Other tornadoes from the same storm system

13 more tornadoes the National Weather Service filed under this storm episode.

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event 5700369. Narratives are written by the National Weather Service forecast office that issued the report.

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