Danny Neal
EF5
Anyone venture a guess?
Name that date #11
- Thread starter Danny Neal
- Start date
Anyone venture a guess?
Michael O'Keeffe
Is it Jan 21, 1999? I think I have seen that pic before.
Danny Neal
EF5
lol yeah, it was the only one I could find that showed the amount of sups ravaging E AR. I remember this event.....watching the weather channel live report from Memphis with sirens blaring and constant lightning to the west just across the river. Really cool
Marc Austin
EF4
I do believe this is Jan 21, 1999 as stated above. My brother Paul was going to school in Monticello, AR. He wasn't able to chase much, but he remembers this event very well. I actually was going to post this as a chase case, but couldn't find enough radar/satellite imagery. What a day though!
Danny Neal
EF5
Yeah, the only real in depth synoptic discussion I was able to find with this event actually came from NWS Little Rock
Paul Austin
I remember it quite well. I intercepted one tiny mini-sup in se AR with a decent lowering. It was tricky, as I was in hills and trees but was able to find a clearing atop a hill and watch the cell race away to the north. At the time, I thought this might end up being the storm story of the year. It had been quite some time since a metro area had been directly impacted, so the Little Rock F3 was quite the story, especially for a January storm. Of course we all know what happened May 3rd of the same year. So this event quickly faded into a certain level of obscurity. Video of the Wheatley, AR tornado was quite surreal and reminded me of the Wizard of Oz. An F1 also struck a building that was part of a military weapons storage facility nw of Pine Bluff, where old chemical weapons were being housed at the time 
, hopefully underground. Fortunately, the building struck contained only less dangerous materials, and no spill was detected. The facility has since begun incinerating all the old chem. stockpile. Here's a link to a pic of that tornado.
, hopefully underground. Fortunately, the building struck contained only less dangerous materials, and no spill was detected. The facility has since begun incinerating all the old chem. stockpile. Here's a link to a pic of that tornado.Penny Lehner
EF0
I remember that day quite well. I was living in Batesville, AR at the time in a house with no basement. They let the kids out of school early that day because of predicted storms. It was one isolated supercell after another. The weatherman from channel 8 news out of Jonesboro said that if you are in the broadcast area, take cover. He stated it was one tornado after another and everyone was in danger. I had my daughter hugging the furnace in the only interior closet we had. Three times I tried getting to a friends house who had a basement only to be turned back by funnels. I finally just decided to chance it and drove 80 miles an hour for 7 miles on those cow trails they claim as roads. The closest tornado was about 5 miles from my house. However, a town (Newark) about 10 miles away got hit by 3 seperate tornadoes. The first one went throught the coal burning plant on the edge of town. The second one took out the towns only siren. The third one caused significant damage to about half the town. I had a good friend who was living there and the next day when I went there to check on her, the town was blocked off by the national guard. Lucky for me, I was able to get in with my credentials so I could get her out.
If I remember correctly there were 32 tornadoes reported that day. They started at about 2:00 p.m. and it was wave after wave of isolated cells. We lost electricity at my house so I went into town and checked into the Ramada Inn after the storms had moved out of our area. I remember it was midnight and on the weather channel they were still reporting tornadoes moving into the boothill of MO and into TN. My daughter was 9 years old at the time and it had a huge effect on her life. For quite a few years I battled with her fear of storms after that. Even now she gets very edgy when there are tornadic storms by us.
That event is what made me leave Arkansas. I was tired of living where you couldn't see the damn things coming and not having a basement to take shelter in. So we moved to Kentucky and once again, bought a house without a basement. My neighbor across the street did though.
If I remember correctly there were 32 tornadoes reported that day. They started at about 2:00 p.m. and it was wave after wave of isolated cells. We lost electricity at my house so I went into town and checked into the Ramada Inn after the storms had moved out of our area. I remember it was midnight and on the weather channel they were still reporting tornadoes moving into the boothill of MO and into TN. My daughter was 9 years old at the time and it had a huge effect on her life. For quite a few years I battled with her fear of storms after that. Even now she gets very edgy when there are tornadic storms by us.
That event is what made me leave Arkansas. I was tired of living where you couldn't see the damn things coming and not having a basement to take shelter in. So we moved to Kentucky and once again, bought a house without a basement. My neighbor across the street did though.
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Paul Austin
Here is an animated java visible satellite loop of that day.
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/misc/990121_AR_vis_java.html
Note the training cells along the I-30 corridor from Texarkana to Little Rock and northeastward. It's interesting that the cells popping in the northern part of the state (watch the overshooting tops appearing embedded in the huge canopy) are not undercut by the cells to the south. Many areas got hit by more than one storm as the boundary stalled along the interstate for several hours. At the time, this was the state's largest single day outbreak at 34 tornadoes, and it occurred in January. You had to go back to 1916 to find the next greatest single day outbreak for Arkansas.
This system went on to produce tornadoes into the overnight hours in MS and TN, including the F3 that did severe damage to Clarksville, TN around 4:15 am CST. This was also less than a week (January 17) after tornadoes struck parts of northeast AR (near Jonesboro) and western TN, including the killer (6 individuals) that leveled 200 homes and businesses in Jackson.
January was a bad month for tornadoes in AR and TN (and other parts of the southeast) in 1999. Here is a link to a USA Today article summarizing the tornado outbreaks of 1999. These two outbreaks actually helped propel January to number three in the list of months for highest tornado counts for the year with 216 (compared to the 50-year average of 20) behind only May and June.
http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/goes/misc/990121_AR_vis_java.html
Note the training cells along the I-30 corridor from Texarkana to Little Rock and northeastward. It's interesting that the cells popping in the northern part of the state (watch the overshooting tops appearing embedded in the huge canopy) are not undercut by the cells to the south. Many areas got hit by more than one storm as the boundary stalled along the interstate for several hours. At the time, this was the state's largest single day outbreak at 34 tornadoes, and it occurred in January. You had to go back to 1916 to find the next greatest single day outbreak for Arkansas.
This system went on to produce tornadoes into the overnight hours in MS and TN, including the F3 that did severe damage to Clarksville, TN around 4:15 am CST. This was also less than a week (January 17) after tornadoes struck parts of northeast AR (near Jonesboro) and western TN, including the killer (6 individuals) that leveled 200 homes and businesses in Jackson.
January was a bad month for tornadoes in AR and TN (and other parts of the southeast) in 1999. Here is a link to a USA Today article summarizing the tornado outbreaks of 1999. These two outbreaks actually helped propel January to number three in the list of months for highest tornado counts for the year with 216 (compared to the 50-year average of 20) behind only May and June.
