Tornado in Arkansas, April 19 to 20, 2003

Name: Tornado in Arkansas, April 19 to 20, 2003
Start: 2003-04-19T23:47
End: 2003-04-20T00:11
Location: Arkansas

April 19 to 20, 2003 · NWS LZK · 1 event in 1 county or zone

1 tornado, as filed by the National Weather Service.

Where it happened

Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.

Tornadoes
Tropical storms and surge
Floods
Wind
Hail
Winter weather
Heat and drought
Cold
Fire, smoke and dust
Marine and coastal
Other

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The toll

Deaths: 0
Injuries: 0
Property damage: None recorded
Crop damage: None recorded
Events: 1

Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.

What forecasters said that day

The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.

NWS Little Rock, AR wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Apr 19, 8:45 PM CST, 3 hours 2 minutes earlier.

Area forecast discussion, Apr 19, 8:45 PM CST, 3 hours 2 minutes before

AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
945 PM CDT SAT APR 19 2003

...UPDATE THIS EVENING...

CURRENT FORECAST IN PRETTY GOOD SHAPE BUT GRIDS/ZONES WILL NEED TO
UPDATED TO REFLECT CURRENT TRENDS. SHOWERS CONTINUE OVER THE
SOUTHEAST WITH THE OCCASIONAL STRONG STORM STILL HOLDING ON. MAIN
FOCUS WILL BE LINE OF INTENSE CONVECTION MOVING INTO THE NORTHWEST
CORNER OF THE STATE. CURRENT THINKING IS MOST WILL MISS THE CWA BUT
IT WILL BE FOLLOWED CLOSELY.

LOW PRESSURE CONTINUES TO MOVE FROM CENTRAL ARKANSAS TOWARDS
SOUTHWEST MISSOURI. STRONG DYNAMICS ALOFT APPEAR TO BE STAYING
PRIMARILY TO THE NORTHWEST OF THE STATE. FRONT WILL PUSH INTO
CENTRAL ARKANSAS BY SUNDAY MORNING AND WILL EDGE SLOWLY EAST DURING
THE DAY. MAIN DYNAMICS/WIND ENERGY WILL RIDE NORTH OF THE STATE
GIVING FRONT LITTLE PUSH. DURING LATE MORNING AND AFTERNOON
HOURS...SCATTERED THUNDERSTORMS MAY REDEVELOP IN AREAS MAINLY
SOUTH/EAST OF LITTLE ROCK...WITH MOSTLY DRY WEATHER BEHIND THE
FRONT.

FCSTID =   56

.LZK...NONE.

Hazardous weather outlook, Apr 19, 6:28 PM CST, 5 hours 19 minutes before

ARZ003>007-012>016-021>025-030>034-037>047-052>057-062>069-201000-

HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK...UPDATED
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
728 PM CDT SAT APR 19 2003

THIS HAZARDOUS WEATHER OUTLOOK IS FOR A LARGE PART OF ARKANSAS.

.DAY ONE...TONIGHT

THUNDERSTORMS ACROSS OKLAHOMA DEVELOPED IN ASSOCIATION WITH A COLD
FRONT AND AREA OF LOW PRESSURE ALOFT. THE THUNDERSTORMS ARE EXPECTED
TO ENTER WESTERN ARKANSAS TONIGHT THEN PUSH FARTHER INTO THE STATE
DURING THE EARLY MORNING HOURS. SOME OF THE STORMS COULD BE
SEVERE...MAINLY OVER WESTERN AND NORTHERN ARKANSAS. THE PRIMARY
SEVERE WEATHER THREATS WILL BE DAMAGING WINDS AND LARGE HAIL.

.DAYS TWO THROUGH SEVEN...SUNDAY THROUGH FRIDAY

THE COLD FRONT WILL CONTINUE MOVING EASTWARD ACROSS CENTRAL AND
EASTERN ARKANSAS ON SUNDAY. SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE
POSSIBLE NEAR THE FRONT. ISOLATED STORMS COULD BECOME SEVERE OVER
CENTRAL AND EASTERN ARKANSAS...MAINLY DURING THE MORNING AND EARLY
AFTERNOON. LARGE HAIL AND DAMAGING WINDS WOULD BE THE MAIN SEVERE
WEATHER THREATS.

THE NEXT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE FROM LATE WEDNESDAY THROUGH
THURSDAY.

.SPOTTER INFORMATION STATEMENT...

SPOTTER ACTIVATION MAY BE REQUIRED OVER PARTS OF WESTERN AND
NORTHERN ARKANSAS TONIGHT.

51

In the hours before

Local storm report, Apr 19, 11:02 PM CST, 45 minutes before

PRELIMINARY LOCAL STORM REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE LITTLE ROCK AR
1202 AM CDT SUN APR 20 2003

TIME(CDT)  .....CITY LOCATION.....STATE   ...EVENT/REMARKS...
           ....COUNTY LOCATION....

1045 PM    2 SW HUNT                 AR   .88 INCH HAIL
04/19/03   JOHNSON                        REPORTED BY EMERGENCY
                                          MANAGEMENT

28

The radar

The Springfield radar (KSGF), 138 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the first event began at 05:43 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment

Event by event

1 tornado. Local standard time, as filed.

Tornado, Baxter

When: April 19, 11:47 PM CST to April 20, 12:11 AM CST
Where: Baxter County, 3 mi SE of Gassville
Rating: F1
Path length: 15 mi
Path width: 150 yd
Reported by: NWS STORM SURVEY
Coordinates: 36.250, -92.467

A weak tornado moved from Marion County into Baxter County about 3.1 miles southeast of Gassville. The tornado traveled 15 miles before lifting 7.5 miles northeast of Mountain Home. The tornado passed through the southern portions of Mountain Home. An unoccupied mobile home was destroyed, and debris from the mobile home knocked an adjacent mobile home off its foundation. A number of homes were also damaged, mostly due to falling trees. Shingles were taken off a number of roofs. An apartment building under construction was damaged and a garage at one home collapsed. One vehicle was destroyed by a falling tree and several others were damaged by falling limbs or flying debris. Some power poles were knocked down and dozens of trees along the tornado track were blown down.

What these are

Tornado: A violently rotating column of air in contact with the ground and extending from a thunderstorm, filed with its path, width and Fujita or Enhanced Fujita rating from the damage survey.

After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.

The same day elsewhere

Every storm in Arkansas in 2003 Every state in 2003 This day in weather history The tornado archive for Arkansas, 2003 Warnings in Arkansas, April 2003

Sources

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 5350982.