arkansas weather, national weather service - little rock, Making Tornado History in 1999 (Page 1)

Record Number of Tornadoes

As most of us know by now...1999 was a very busy severe weather year with numerous tornadoes. But some may be asking how numerous?

In 1999, there were 107 tornadoes in Arkansas...a record. The previous record was 78 tornadoes in 1982.

Before 1999, the most tornadoes in one year in Arkansas was 78 in 1982. That record was shattered in 1999... with 107 tornadoes counted. In the Little Rock County Warning Area, there were 65** tornadoes (Jan: 37, Feb: 2, Mar: 11, Apr: 6, May: 3, June: 1, July: 1, Dec: 4).

The Outbreaks

Most of the 65 tornadoes (48 of them) occurred in three outbreaks...January 17th (7 tornadoes), January 21st (30 tornadoes) and March 5th (11 tornadoes). For a closer look at the outbreaks, click on the icon below.

A Quick Look at the Events of 1999

Up until 1999, the largest tornado outbreak in Arkansas occurred on June 5, 1916. On that day, 34 tornadoes were spawned. On January 21, 1999...a total of 56 tornadoes were produced statewide. That is more than double the amount of tornadoes produced in one year (21)!

On 01/21/99, there were 52 tornadoes in an 8 hour period...with 8 people killed.

There were 52 tornadoes across the state in an 8 hour period (3 pm CST to 11 pm CST)! Remarkably, only 8 people lost their lives.

Below are some additional records to note:

*	Most tornadoes in a state on any day in January (previous record was 13 tornadoes on January 10, 1975 in Alabama and on January 24, 1997 in Tennessee).

*	Most tornadoes on one day in January (previous record was 39 tornadoes on January 10, 1975 in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, and Texas).

*	Most tornadoes in any state in the month of January (previous record was 25 tornadoes in Texas in 1998).

The January event will be hard to forget, with so much going on in so little time. For example, the Little Rock Doppler Weather Radar showed three tornadoes just before 5pm (to right). There were many more tornadoes to come with widespread destruction occurring.

There were 3 tornadoes on the ground at the same time (just before 5 pm CST) on 01/21/99.

To Making Tornado History in 1999 (Page 2)

Back to Historic Events in Arkansas

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/lzk/html/torhistory.htm


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