1999 Grand Prairie, Texas tornado

**1999 Grand Prairie, Texas tornado**

In the early morning hours of May 25, 1999, a deadly F4 tornado struck Grand Prairie, Texas. The tornado, the strongest in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex since 1994, was also the deadliest tornado of the 1990s. The high death toll was in part due to the low visibility of the tornado, and the fact that no warning was issued until after the tornado had dissipated.

## Meteorological background

During the early morning hours of May 25, 1999, meteorological conditions over north-central Texas became conductive for severe weather. At around 3:00 AM CDT a thunderstorm developed over Meridian, Texas, 66 amd a half miles southeast of Grand Prairie, and rapidly began to grow as it headed towards the metroplex. Large hail and high winds were reported at Coyote Flats, 31 miles southeast of the city. The first tornado touched down shortly after, tracking for just under four miles. Afterwards, extremely heavy rain was reported under the updraft, foreshadowing the high precipitation that helped cause the later high death toll.

## Tornado history

    At just past 6:00 AM, a very narrow tornado touched down on the South Carter Parkway and quickly moved northeast. F1 damage occurred to multiple homes in the Indiana Hills area. The tornado abruptly and rapidly intensified over Small Hill Drive, reaching F4 intensity in what was estimated to be under 30 seconds. Two large tanks at an industrial zone were seriously damaged, an LPG tanker was tossed a quarter mile, and several i-beams were lifted off the ground and thrown into nearby homes, resulting in the first fatality. Multiple homes on Oak and Birch Streets suffered F3 damage, with 2 more fatalities occurring at a single home that received F4 damage.

    After mowing down a large grove of trees and causing yet more F2-F3 damage in another neighborhood (and 1 more fatality), the tornado reached estimated peak intensity as it crossed Interstate 30. It was there that most of the tornado's fatalities occurred, as the tornado made a direct hit on a large traffic jam. A flatbed truck was hurled half a mile into the trees, a school bus was well and thoroughly obliterated - 17 of the fatalities were from that vehicle alone - and many cars were thrown into the sky and mangled - in one instance, it was hard to tell how many cars were in a pile, much less what kind they were.

More tree damage ensued as the tornado weakened. F0 damage occurred for the rest of the path, which ended on Mayo Street just before 6:15 AM. 5 minutes later, another tornado - an F2 - formed in Irving, which resulted in 4 fatalities along a 2.3 mile long path. The supercell caused moderate to severe wind and hail damage across the Metroplex before weakening, dissipating over the Red River just after 8:20 AM.

## Impact

     The Grand Prairie tornado was the deadliest tornado nationwide since the Wichita Falls tornado of 1979, with 37 fatalities, and was the deadliest of the 1990s, surpassing the Bridge Creek-Moore F5 earlier that month by a single death. The tornado caused almost a billion dollars in damage and over a thousand injuries. Half an hour after the tornado, a state of emergency was declared for southern Dallas County.

## Aftermath

The NWS in Fort Worth did not issue a tornado warning for the tornado until 6:16, two minutes after the tornado had dissipated. This was partly because the storm did not have a hook, and partly because the tornado was so rainwrapped that observation was almost impossible. Like the West Bend tornado of 1981, the tornado showed the problems with operational meteorology or "nowcasting" and drove a young NWS spotter named Daryl Parrish Underwood to a storm chasing career.